The testimony from top Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor resulted in a "very devastating day" for President Donald Trump, former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, now an NBC News contributor, said Tuesday.
"There's two different issues for the impeachment. One is, did Trump go and solicit foreign interference? That, itself, is an impeachable offense," Katyal said during an MSNBC "Deadline: White House" discussion of the day's events. "It's kind of the quintessential one. And the second one is, was there bribery, was there a quid pro quo?"
The case on the first issue has "always been pretty much open and shut," Katyal said. "It is revealed directly in the White House transcript, or faux transcript that they released a few weeks ago. But now we're seeing this quid pro quo argument developing."
Katyal earlier in the day tweeted a key section of an opening statement Taylor presented to members of Congress, deeming it particularly "damaging."
In that section, Taylor said, during a phone conversation with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, he was told President Donald Trump wanted newly elected Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to state publicly Ukraine would investigate Burisma, the energy firm that had hired Hunter Biden, as well as the 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile, show host Nicolle Wallace said Taylor's testimony was a serious "Republicans, if you're listening" moment, and they will have to decide if a career diplomat such as him is lying.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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