George Kent reaffirmed Trump’s 2016 obsession and his 2020 objectives in his testimony. Trump still believes in debunked CTs, and the GOP witness list reflects that level of disinformation.

In newly released testimony , George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said that not only did Trump want investigations of Burisma Holdings (the company that employed former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter) and potential Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election; he also specifically wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to link the latter to the word “Clinton.”

And on Thursday, the argument was undermined again.

That argument, of course, ignoresin the past. It also ignores the self-serving nature of the two specific investigations he has sought.

One of the central defenses of President Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine is that he’s really just interested in rooting out corruption. Ukraine is a corrupt country, the argument goes, so why shouldn’t U.S. aid and other things be conditioned on that?

Newly released transcripts of key witnesses detail that the White House's pressure campaign on Ukraine was "explicit" and "blatant" and orchestrated by Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. @AliVelshi discusses with @HarleyRouda , @NatashaBertrand and @neeratanden . https://t.co/x8kaLOCjxu pic.twitter.com/Y5VDQImqBP

Three witnesses rather than amigos have supported Trump’s own confession.

A White House official who was on President Trump‘s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Congress there was “no doubt” that Trump had invoked a quid pro quo, according to transcripts released Friday as part of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine specialist on the National Security Council (NSC) who was on the July 25 phone call, told House lawmakers the message from Trump was clear.

“The demand was, in order to get the White House meeting, they had to deliver an investigation,” Vindman testified.

That assessment was backed by Fiona Hill, formerly Trump’s top Russia analyst at the NSC, who told lawmakers it was widely understood that investigating Burisma — the Ukrainian energy giant that had employed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden — was code for investigating the Bidens.

Vindman said Trump mentioned Burisma by name on the July 25 call.

“This is very much repeating things that Rudy Giuliani was saying in public on television,” Hill said.

Both Vindman and Hill told House investigators last month that Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, was a liability to diplomats managing U.S. foreign policy in Kiev — and should therefore be avoided.