Day One of Trump's Impeachment Hearings

William Taylor and George Kent, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified on Wednesday in the first televised hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Taylor and Kent linked Trump directly to a pressure campaign on Ukraine that would conduct investigations and would benefit him politically.

Fox News reports that after the first day of the public hearing in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, it was wrapped up with no major revelations but only highlighted weaknesses' of Democrats witnesses who only relied in second-hand information but never really have the chance to interact with the president.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-III, appeared on Wednesday to embrace hearsays. He said that hearsay can be much better evidence than direct and that countless people have been convicted because of hearsay since the courts have routinely allowed, created, and needed exceptions to hearsay. However, it was not clear which of those hearsays would apply and whether Quigley's argument would persuade critical swing-vote with the Democrats.

Currently, there are 233 Democrats in the House out of 431 members. The Democrats only need 217 votes to impeach the President. This means that they can still impeach the president even if they loss16 of their own members.

Representative Elissa Slotkin, a newbie, who flipped a Republican district into a Democrat where Trump won by just 7 points said that she is weighing everything. Slotkin said that her constituents expects her to make an objective decision and not to base it in an hour of testimony. She even said that launching an impeachment inquiry is politically a tough thing to do. Moreover, before the hearing ended she said in a statement that she does not wake up early in the morning and look for some golden poll as the basis of her decision but rather she would analyze the testimonies carefully in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in a report from the Reuters, Taylor the acting ambassador to Ukraine pointed to Trump's keen interest in getting the Eastern European ally to investigate Biden, former U.S. vice president, and reiterated their understanding by witholding $391 million worth of U.S. security aid not unless he will cooperate.

Taylor said that on July 26, his staff overheard a call between Trump and his former political donor appointed as a senior diplomat Gordon Sondland in which Trump asked about the updates of the investigations while Gordon in response told Trump that the Ukrainians are ready to proceed.

A day after the call of the President, the staff member asked Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, what Trump thought about Ukraine, Taylor said. During the impeachment hearing, Taylor testified that Ambassador Sondland said that the President is more concern about the investigations of Biden. When asked by Adam Schiff, the committee's Democratic chairman if Trump cared more about Biden's investigation rather than the investigations about Ukraine, Taylor responded "Yes".

Trump told the reporters after the hearing at the White House Press Conference together with the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he knew nothing about the call that Taylor said. Trump denied the allegation of Taylor. David Holmes is the staff of Taylor who overheard the conversation will be subpoenaed to testify behind close doors on Friday in the impeachment inquiry.

Read more: Day One of public impeachment hearings puts pressure on moderate Dems and Trump impeachment hearings focus on Ukraine pressure campaign in first day