6 takeaways from Trump impeachment hearings

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Saturday, November 16, 2019

Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., (L) declines ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes,' R-Calif., attempt to yield his time to another committee member during a hearing in which former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill November 15, 2019 in Washington, D.C. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

The House Intelligence Committee began their impeachment hearing against President Donald Trump on Wednesday amid great media attention and intense debate.

While calls for the president to be impeached have existed from the onset of his administration, House Democrats pointed to a recent whistleblower complaint against Trump to justify the hearing.

According to the whistleblower, Trump unlawfully used his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”

This allegedly came via a phone call Trump had in July with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which the U.S. president asked him to look into potential 2020 election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his dealings in Ukraine. A rough transcript of that call can be read here.

Here are six takeaways from the first and second days of the impeachment hearing, held Wednesday and Friday. They include the first phone call (transcript here) between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, whether the whistleblower will testify, and if the hearing will sway Americans' opinions on the issue.