Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Republicans' Top Impeachment Hearing Witness Just Completely Contradicted Trump's Claims About Joe Biden

Republicans' Top Impeachment Hearing Witness Just Completely Contradicted Trump's Claims About Joe Biden
PBS News

That didn't go according to plan.

House Intelligence Committee Republicans overseeing the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump lamented for weeks that Democrats, who dominate the committee, are suppressing Republican witnesses from publicly testifying.

Despite the baseless claims, Republicans were able to call former Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker in the hopes of bolstering their defense of Trump, since it had been Volker who, in his closed testimony, had pushed back on the notion that Trump's call with Zelensky amounted to a quid pro quo.


But it seems those hopes may have been misplaced.

In his opening statement, Volker testified that he didn't believe any of the allegations that former Vice President Joe Biden used his position to block investigations of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Biden's son sat, even referring to the idea as a conspiracy theory.

Watch below.

Claiming he never sought an investigation into Biden, Volker later added:

"Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani raised, and I rejected, the conspiracy theory that Vice President Biden would have been influenced in his duties as Vice President by money paid to his son. As I testified previously, I have known Vice President Biden for 24 years. He is an honorable man and I hold him in the highest regard."

Volker, who worked under Biden during the Obama administration, reiterated his defense of Biden throughout his testimony.

Further shattering the shoddy defense put forth by Republicans, Volker amended his closed-door testimony from October 3rd, in which he denied the existence of a quid pro quo in regards to the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine.

Volker changed the testimony from a denial to a lack of awareness, asserting that he did not dispute the existence of a quid pro quo.

Volker claimed not to understand the connection between Burisma and the Bidens, therefore not realizing that the attempted investigations into Burisma were an effort to get political dirt on Trump's potential 2020 opponent."

The Republican National Committee later tried to claim that Volker was a Democratic witness.

He wasn't.

People were stunned that it was Republicans' witness that ended up damaging their claims.

Though Hunter Biden did serve on the board of Burisma, Trump and his allies have repeatedly lied about Vice President Biden's actions toward the prosecutor investigating the company for corruption.

When Biden, in accordance with US policy and consistent with the position of the European Union, called for the dismissal of prosecutor Viktor Shokin, Shokin's investigation into Burisma had already completed. In fact, Biden and others were calling for Shokin's removal because the prosecutor wasn't doing enough to weed out corruption in Ukrainian politics and was widely believed to be corrupt himself.

Volker's testimony is far from over. You can watch it here.

More from People/donald-trump

Sydney Sweeney
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for W Magazine

Sydney Sweeney Could Face Charges After Hanging Bras On Hollywood Sign Without Permission

Legendary and controversial showman P.T. Barnum has been credited with saying, "Any publicity is good publicity." Of course, Barnum was operating in the 1800s when he could shape the narrative and kill damaging news.

In the digital age, publicity can quickly reach a global audience. Any missteps or poor choices are out there before damage control can be done.

Keep ReadingShow less
Glenn Close; Donald Trump
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Glenn Close Offers Dire Warning To Trump Over His Regime's 'Inhumanity' In Powerful Video

Film legend Glenn Close shared her feelings on President Donald Trump and his regime's "inhumanity" in a viral video on Instagram, saying she felt "compelled" to speak out in the wake of the murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Close—best known for starring in such classics as Fatal Attraction and who recently received raves for her work on Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery—condemned the "cold-blooded murder of American citizens" and warned Trump that "there will be hell to pay" as more and more people rise up against his leadership.

Keep ReadingShow less
Gavin Newsom; JD Vance; Tom Cotton
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Gavin Newsom Epically Rips JD Vance And MAGA Senator Over Their Hot Takes On Minneapolis Shootings

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized Vice President JD Vance and Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton after they both posted heartless remarks about the recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

Earlier this month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Good in her car. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed Good “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Kristi Noem
Andres Kudacki/Getty Images; Al Drago/Getty Images

AOC Goes Nuclear On Kristi Noem For Suggesting That Protesters Who Show Up With Firearms Deserve To Die

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's hypocrisy after Noem responded to the murder of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis by claiming that protesters who show up with firearms aren't "peaceful."

Calls for an investigation have intensified from across the political spectrum after analysis of multiple videos showed ICE officers removing a handgun from Pretti—whom authorities said was permitted to carry but was not handling—before fatally shooting him.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Describe The Strangest Health Conditions They've Ever Experienced

The human body is complicated, fascinating, and sometimes difficult to explain.

While we know that, it's incredibly unnerving when we have a symptom that even our doctors struggle to explain or identify.

Keep ReadingShow less