Taylor Testifies - Trump Lashes Out

Bill Taylor, the chargé d'affaires at the Ukrainian embassy in Kiev, gave a closed-door deposition before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees on Tuesday, October 22. He's the one who early this year, responding to the Trump/Zelensky phone call when Trump said "I would like you to do us a favor though" while withholding desperately needed military assistance (already voted for by Congress) in connection with Trump's insistence that Ukraine investigate Joe and Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma, a Ukraine energy company, and his and Giuliani's pursuit of a debunked Internet conspiracy theory about CrowdStrike, the DNC server, and purported Ukrainian interference on Clinton's behalf in the 2016 election, tweeted "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign."

Apparently the prospect of his testimony has Trump worried. The president* tweeted the following:

So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded:

“This is a lynching in every sense. This is un-American. I’ve never seen a situation in my lifetime as a lawyer where somebody is accused of a major misconduct who cannot confront the accuser, call witnesses on their behalf and have the discussion in the light of day so the public can judge,” he said.

Graham is lying through his teeth. As a lawyer -- the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, no less -- he knows perfectly well that what is taking place right now is not a trial but an investigation, and secrecy is the normal process. During the Benghazi investigation, 103 witnesses -- in fact, every witness called who was not named Clinton -- testified behind closed doors. 164 African-Americans were lynched in Senator Graham's state.

Responding to the president*'s tweet, Graham said, “I think that’s pretty well accurate. I think lynching is being seen as somebody taking the law in their own hands and out to get somebody for no good reason,” he said.

Hogan Gidley, the principal deputy White House press secretary, made the ridiculous statment that "The president was not equating the impeachment inquiry with the brutal killing during Jim Crow." [HUH?]

"The president is not comparing what's happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history," Gidley told reporters on the White House driveway. "What he is explaining clearly is the way he has been treated by the media since he announced for president."

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, condemned Mr. Trump for his tweet comparing the impeachment inquiry to a "lynching."

"Thousands of African Americans were slaughtered during the lynching epidemic in this country for no reason other than the color of their skin. The president should not compare a constitutionally mandated impeachment inquiry to such a dangerous and dark chapter of American history," Jeffries said. "I hope that he will apologize."

Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, who has introduced a bill to make lynching a hate crime, called on Mr. Trump to delete the tweet.

"You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING? What the hell is wrong with you?" Rush said, quoting Mr. Trump's tweet. "Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you. Delete this tweet."