President Trump fulminated on Twitter today over “Never Trumper” staffers in the executive branch undermining … well, you can read for yourself.
….Does anybody think this is fair? Even though there was no quid pro quo, I’m sure they would like to try. Worse than the Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019
While it’s true that a vast cabal of unelected bureaucrats in intelligence and Obama administration holdovers have undercut Trump in the past, Bill Taylor is no such man. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo picked out the career diplomat himself, and thus far, his record has lent ample credibility to his testimony.
Taylor’s testimony to impeachment investigators crucially claims two things. First, it alleges that Trump specifically withheld aid to Ukraine in the hopes of cajoling their government into digging up dirt on the Bidens. Second, he claims that a Ukrainian official confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knew of Trump’s extortion attempt and wanted no part in it.
Two separate reports have corroborated the latter point, and the former falls in line with the transcript of the call between Trump and Zelensky. Taylor’s background only further enhances his credibility.
The Trump administration selected Taylor, a former ambassador who served under Democratic and Republican administrations for a quarter of a century, to head to Ukraine. It was a posting that he admitted his wife did not want him to take. Pompeo, a fellow top graduate of West Point, plucked the ambassador from retirement, and by all accounts, Taylor served American interests up until and including during his testimony. He did not leak to the press or even to the inspector general. He seems to have fulfilled Trump’s demands as he could without participating in illegal or impeachable behavior, and then he claims to have told the truth to investigators when called.
Do you see any red flags there?
Maybe evidence discrediting Taylor will emerge, and Trump can complain if Democrats obstruct confirmation hearings for his picks requiring their consent. But if he considers Taylor a Never Trumper unfit for his administration, he can take it up with Pompeo instead of Twitter.
