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

Donald Trump
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump Dragged After Giving Unlikely Reason Why He Doesn't Like The Term 'Artificial Intelligence'

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump was in attendance at an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday. During a speech at the event, he revealed he dislikes artificial intelligence.

Well, the term for the technology at least. Trump seems to love posting AI-generated videos of himself as a golden idol and his adversaries being arrested.

Keep ReadingShow less
Angus King
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Pro-Choice Senator Sparks Outrage After Admitting Vote To Confirm Anti-Abortion Judge Was 'A Mistake'

Maine independent Senator Angus King voted Tuesday to confirm a Christian nationalist solicitor general from Missouri, Josh Divine, to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge in his home state.

King, a staunch pro-choice advocate throughout his time in the Senate, said on Thursday his vote was "a mistake."

Keep ReadingShow less

People Break Down Which Professions Make Bad Spouses

When two people get married, the vows they've exchanged promise that they will stick together through thick and thin.

But "in sickness and in health" doesn't necessarily cover the hardships that come with some professions a person might be working in, and it might be too much to maintain the career and the marriage.

Keep ReadingShow less
Barack Obama; Joy Behar; Donald Trump
Melina Mara - Pool/Getty Images; The View/YouTube; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House Gives 'The View' Ominous Warning After Joy Behar Quips That Trump Is 'Jealous' Of Obama

On Wednesday, the discussion on The View turned to MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's latest attempt to distract the nation from his involvement with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—by accusing former Democratic President Barack Obama of being "sedacious."

It's believed he meant "seditious."

Keep ReadingShow less
Jack Schlossberg; Melania Trump
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

JFK's Grandson Slams GOP

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, took to Instagram to criticize the proposed renaming of the Kennedy Center’s renowned opera house to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

The proposal passed with a 33-25 vote on July 22nd, as the House Republican subcommittee voted on the routine annual $37.2 million funding for the center, effective October 1.

Keep ReadingShow less