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Washington (CNN) - New and dramatic revelations on the first day of the public hearings in the House of Representatives political trial process painted a condemnatory image of Donald Trump as a president willing to sacrifice U.S. interests in favor of his.
In the most critical step so far in the investigation into Trump's alleged scheme to force Ukraine to help him in his re-election campaign, the Democrats posed to all American citizens an issue that is at the center of this dark national chapter.
"If this is not a conduct for a political trial, what is it?" Asked the president of the Chamber's Intelligence Commission, Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, who said the values of the republic and the Concept of a responsible presidency for future generations were at stake.
- The most important moments of the first day of public hearings of political trial
Having as first witnesses two diplomats of conscience and apolitics who dedicated their lives to service to the nation, the Democrats built the foundation to cement the case that Trump abused his superior power. It is a story that will surely develop over and over again in the coming weeks, as lawmakers contemplate the possibility of giving Trump the historical stigma of being just the third president to be taken to political trial.
At the most striking moment on Wednesday, the main US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, revealed a previously undisclosed call between Trump and the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, which took place one day after Trump's notorious conversation with the president of Ukraine in July.
He said an assistant, who heard the call on a mobile phone while in a restaurant, on a stage that raised national security concerns, reported that Trump asked Sondland about "investigations" about former Vice President Joe Biden who had asked President Vlodymyr Zelensky.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he didn't remember that fact.
"I do not know anything about that. First time I hear it, ”Trump said in the White House. “In any case, it is more second-hand information. I don't remember her at all, not even a little. ”
The new detail gives a blow to the Republican claims that there is no evidence of any direct link between Trump and an attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden. As Trump previously stated about Sondland: "I don't know the gentleman," the testimony also opened new holes in Trump's denials. And it has already generated extreme pressure on Sondland himself, who must testify next week.
Taylor and his colleague George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, also testified that he supports the theory that Trump demanded negative political information about Biden.
William Taylor, right, and George Kent.
In a political world governed by the facts and where polarized differences still allow a dispassionate debate, Trump's position worsened immeasurably during an intense day of testimony.
But his Republican allies, who mostly defended him with fearful conspiracy theories of conservative media and complaints about the process, underscored the overwhelming democratic task ahead. The Republican Party attack dogs may have managed to complicate what the Democrats hoped was an easy case to understand and that could convince the public of Trump's bad performance in a way that Russia's voluminous report by former special prosecutor Robert Mueller he could not do. Democrats must do more to crystallize all the testimonies that are coming in a convincing and concise case that could change the political winds.
There is no obvious collapse yet in Trump's defense
If the Democrats want to launch a long-term attempt to overthrow Trump, they must break the dam of Republican support created by a president who has extraordinary control over his party. His long-term goal of harming Trump with the political trial process so much that his 2020 campaign becomes an impossible task may be a more feasible goal.
At the beginning of the hearings, there are still no signs of a collapse in Trump's Republican support.
Unlike the era of Richard Nixon, a battery of conservative media experts, radio broadcasters and Trump supporters in Fox News primetime have the power to mobilize Republican voters and keep Trump's coalition intact in Washington.
However, in the case of a subsequent political trial, Republican senators may be a bit more impassive in the face of pressure from the Trump group in the House of Representatives, especially those facing tough strife over reelection in disputed states.
Still, one of Trump's most committed advocates, Ohio representative Jim Jordan, said the initial tactics of the Democrats was a failure.
"I think it's a sad chapter for the country but, frankly, a good day for the events and for the president of the United States," he said.
However, sometimes, the Republican counterattack failed seriously. At one point, Republican lawyer Stephen Castor, who struggled to establish a constant line of questions, made Taylor laugh when he tried to make him accept that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani's backdoor channel Dealing with Ukraine was not "as bizarre as it could be."
"It's not as bizarre as it could be, I agree," Taylor said.
It may be days before it becomes clear how the Washington drama unfolds across the nation.
But some voters in Maricopa County in Arizona, a crucial district in dispute in 2020, did not like what they heard about the president's behavior.
"I no longer recognize the Republican Party of my youth," said Carly Rebuck, 38, who did not vote for Trump the last time and believes he should be dismissed.
Boyce O'Brien, a registered Republican who has lived in Phoenix for 22 years, also criticized the party.
“Where are those Christian Republicans when it comes to integrity? They have ignored what this president has done, ”he told CNN Kyung Lah.
But Kent Jeffers, a visitor from Wisconsin, said the hearings will not affect his support for Trump.
“It's a constant block of everything President Trump is trying to do. Okay, Mueller did not understand. Other people did not understand. Now we need to find another narrative. I think everyone is numb, ”said Jeffers.
Trump 'cares more about Biden' than Ukraine
The Democratic plan for the next two weeks is to maintain a pace of testimonies designed to show that Trump kidnapped the interests of US foreign policy to obtain a dishonest political benefit.
This scheme allegedly ignored the desperation of a struggling democracy that faces a Russian invasion and needed $ 400 million in US military aid to survive.
As Taylor, paraphrasing a comment from Sondland, put it: Trump "cares more about Biden's investigations" than Ukraine.
Wednesday was a day of contrasts.
Taylor and his colleague Kent, dressed in a bow tie, emerged from the darkness of decades of service in the Foreign Service to demonstrate duty and moderation that marked a clear distinction of the hyperpartisan greenhouse in the chamber's audience room.
Taylor, a Vietnam war veteran who against his best opinion was sent to Kiev to replace Marie "Masha" Yovanovitch, repeatedly reminded lawmakers that he had no political motivation.
Kent and Taylor were the epitome of the post-World War II diplomatic consensus that sees the interests of the United States better promoted through global leadership and transatlantic alliances.
"The security and prosperity of Europe contributed to our security and prosperity," Kent said.
But this is a conventional worldview that Trump, with his "United States First" perspective and distrust of the allies he sees as abusive, wants to destroy.
Representative Devin Nunes, a staunch Trump ally, described both witnesses as citizens of a "politicized bureaucracy" that had caused immense damage to the faith of Americans in the government.
"The civil service elements have decided that they, not the president, are really in charge," said the California Republican.
As if to underline the chasm in rival visions of the global role of the United States, Trump appeared at a press conference with the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, when the hearing ended.
The president praised Erdogan, whose forces attacked the Kurdish allies of the United States in a recent operation in Syria authorized by Trump. And in another affront to the traditional values of the United States, Trump joked about the friendly press group that travels with Erdogan. Journalists have been arrested and imprisoned en masse in Turkey.
For Schiff, the next few weeks will serve to prove that Trump's values and behavior are inconsistent with the expectations of a president.
In his final statement, he said that the process was “if we are prepared to accept in the present United States a situation in which the president, for his own personal or political benefit, can condition military aid, diplomatic meetings or any other action of an official act in order to obtain help for his re-election ”.
Political judgment