On Wednesday, during the first day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, Bill Taylor and George Kent, two State Department officials of impeccable credentials, explained how the president used foreign aid and the promise of a White House meeting to try to extort a vulnerable ally for help with his reelection.
Withholding security assistance from Ukraine “for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense,” said Taylor, America’s top diplomat in that country. “It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical.