Longtime diplomat Bill Taylor testifies that he has never seen a US president make foreign aid a condition of their personal or political interests

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A key witness who testified during Wednesday's public impeachment hearing said he had never before seen a US president use foreign aid as leverage for personal or political gain.

Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, testified during the hearing about allegations that the Trump administration dangled military aid to Ukraine and pressured its government to investigate Trump's 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden.

In a powerful exchange with Daniel Goldman, the Democrats' staff lawyer, Taylor acknowledged that the move appeared unprecedented to him.

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One of the most important witnesses against President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had never before witnessed a US president use foreign aid as leverage for personal gain.

The first public impeachment hearing opened Wednesday morning, and featured testimony from Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.

The Democratic investigations chief, Daniel Goldman, questioned Taylor on his testimony that the Trump administration dangled US military aid and a potential White House visit in exchange for the Ukrainian government's promise to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden.

In a powerful exchange with Goldman, Taylor acknowledged that the move appeared unprecedented to him.

Dan Goldman: "Have you ever seen another example of foreign aid conditioned on the personal or political interests of the president of the United States?"

Bill Taylor: "No, Mr. Goldman, I have not." https://t.co/O6ybmtHEg0 pic.twitter.com/PcVEimNdtP — CBS News (@CBSNews) November 13, 2019

"Ambassador Taylor, in your decades of military service and diplomatic service representing the United States around the world, have you ever seen another example of foreign aid conditioned on the personal or political interests of the president of the United States?" Goldman asked.

"No, Mr. Goldman, I have not," Taylor replied.

Taylor also said he believed that Trump felt that the Ukrainians "owed" him these investigations into the Bidens, and that withholding military aid "for no good reason" was nonsensical.

"It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do," Taylor said. "It was illogical, it could not be explained, it was crazy."

agoodfriendofyours on November 15th, 2019 at 05:48 UTC »

the Trump administration dangled US military aid and a potential White House visit in exchange for the Ukrainian government's promise to investigate

The White House visit was a nice touch. I wonder if they offered to bring in some Popeye's.

devinejoh on November 15th, 2019 at 05:11 UTC »

I mean, Nixon as a canidate sort of did it when he told south Vietnam to hold off on the peace talks until after the election because he claimed that he could get them a better deal and more support.

Funny thing is, LBJ knew about this because he had the office of the south vietnamese president bugged but decided not to reveal it for fear of damaging relations with south Vietnam

6squareddabsmaf on November 15th, 2019 at 00:27 UTC »

Yeah but Obama only gave Ukranians blankets!