Impeachment inquiry: Democrats say diplomat’s testimony is a ‘sea change’ – live | US news

Even as House Republicans rally behind Trump and seek to discredit the impeachment inquiry, Pelosi is promoting a public petition to condemn Trump.

There’s no real purpose for such a petition — but it’s a sign that Pelosi is sticking with her impeachment strategy despite Republican attacks.

Several Republican representatives are speaking out against the impeachment inquiry, repeatedly calling it a sham, echoing language from the president, his press secretary, and his associates.

Republicans including minority leader Kevin McCarthy are once again arguing that the inquiry is invalid because the House has not taken a vote to open it. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that there is no rule or regulation requiring such a vote.

Trump held two days of meetings with House Republicans over the weekend at Camp David, signaling that the White House is working hard to ensure support as evidence mounts in favor of impeachment.

Republican lawmakers are taking advantage of time allotted for one-minute speeches this evening to reiterate their loyalty to Trump.

“The facts will exonerate our president,” said Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

“Instead of wasting valuable time with this baseless inqurity there is so much more we could and should be doing,” said Tim Whalberg of Michigan.

One after another, Republicans repeated claims that the impeachment inquiry was illegitimate and unfair.

Insisting “there was no quid pro quo”, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement: “Today was just more triple hearsay and selective leaks from the Democrats’ politically-motivated, closed-door, secretive hearings.”

She also said the inquiry was “a coordinated smear campaign”.

“Trump is so desperate not to love to Joe Biden that he threatened to withhold vital military assistance,” said Biden’s campaign manager Kate Bedingfield in a statement.

“The president has betrayed his office,” the statement reads.

Trump to Netanyahu: ‘You are great!’

Trump wished Netanyahu a happy birthday, calling him “one of my closest allies”, in a letter sent on Monday, after the Israeli prime minister announced his failure to form a coalition government.

“You are great!” Trump added, in a handwritten note next to his signature.

According to Axios, Netanyahu’s office released the letter to show that he still had strong ties with Trump, who remains popular in Israel.

James Jeffrey, the special envoy to Syria, said he wasn’t consulted on the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw troops. In a testimony before the Senate foreign relations committee, he said “I personally was not consulted before the decision.”

He defended the administration, saying that Barack Obama and George W Bush both acted in Iraq without consulting him while he worked as an ambassador and a chargé d’affaires, respectively.

“In my current job, I feel that my views, through Secretary Pompeo have been brought repeatedly and frequently and, I think in many cases, effectively,” he said.

But lawmakers were incredulous.

“Professionally are you indifferent to not being consulted about the matter that is in your lifelong expertise?” asked Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. “Whether you mind it or not, I mind not being consulted.”

Bill Taylor’s testimony – which contradicts claims by the president, his chief of staff and his and his associates – “is a sea change”, said the Democratic representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. “I think it could accelerate matters,” he said.

The Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida said: “I do not know how you would listen to today’s testimony from Ambassador Taylor and come to any other (conclusion) except that the president abused his power and withheld foreign aid”

Meanwhile, other Democrats, including those running for president, have reiterated their support for a speedy impeachment.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, testified in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry that he was told Trump was holding up military aid to Ukraine until the country’s president publicly announced investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election – contradicting Trump’s repeated denials of a quid pro quo.
• Trump sparked outrage by comparing the impeachment inquiry to a “lynching”.
• The anonymous author of a 2018 New York Times op-ed who claimed to be part of an internal White House “resistance” to Trump is now writing a book while maintaining anonymity.
• Russia has won joint control of formerly Kurdish territory in Syria, marking a crucial victory for Vladimir Putin after the withdrawal of US troops.
• The UK parliament rejected the Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposal to fast-track Brexit, virtually guaranteeing that Britain will not leave the EU by its set deadline at the end of the month. (Follow the Guardian’s UK politics live blog for more.)

Maanvi will have more on the news of the day, so stay tuned.

Bill Taylor also said in his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment that a National Security Council official, Tim Morrison, had offered a less than glowing assessment of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.

The acting US ambassador to Ukraine said: “Mr. Morrison told me that the call ‘could have been better’ and that President Trump had suggested that President Zelenskyy or his staff meet with Mr. Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr. I did not see any official readout of the call until it was publicly released on September 25.”

Morrison’s opinion is a far cry from Trump’s repeated assertions that his call with the Ukrainian president was “perfect” and included nothing improper.

A Washington Post reporter summarized the opening statement of Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, in this way: