‘Bombshell testimony’: 5 Important takeaways from the latest impeachment hearings

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ambassador Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union as he appears before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill during the House impeachment inquiry hearings in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill November 20, 2019 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images/Doug Mills-Pool

This week, the House Intelligence Committee heard testimony in the impeachment hearings that many believe severely undermined President Donald Trump’s denial of wrongdoing.

The impeachment hearings, which began last week, centered on a whistleblower’s claim that the president unlawfully used his office to “solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.”

This reportedly came partly 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.

An unclassified rough transcript of the phone call between Presidents Trump and Zelensky can be found here.

While many felt that the first week of testimony lacked any major revelations, testimony from this week has been viewed by many to be a major breakthrough for the case against Trump.

Here are five important takeaways from the second week of the House committee hearings on impeachment. They include an argument in favor of the “Quid Pro Quo” claim and reactions to that claim.