George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs listens to William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testify during a House Intelligence Committee public hearing in the impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 13, 2019. Reuters/Erin Scott

Two career foreign-service officers laid out a devastating portrait on Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s efforts to strong-arm an ally into delivering political dirt on a rival.

Bill Taylor, the US’s chief envoy in Ukraine, said that in his decades-long career of public service, he’d never seen anything like this before.

George Kent, a top State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy, blew a hole through all of Trump’s main defenses.

Democrats‘ strategy for Wednesday’s impeachment hearing was to keep it simple. Republicans‘ strategy was to throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks.

Scroll down to read more key takeaways from the first public impeachment hearing.

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Two top foreign-service officers on Wednesday laid out a damning portrait for the public of President Donald Trump’s efforts to strong-arm a critical US ally into delivering political dirt while holding up military aid and a White House meeting.

Bill Taylor, the US’s chief envoy in Ukraine, and George Kent, a top State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy, were the first two witnesses to testify in Congress‘ bombshell impeachment hearings into whether Trump abused his public office for private gain.

Kent testified on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s efforts on Trump’s behalf to get dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden from Ukraine. Kent told lawmakers Giuliani’s campaign was not part of official US foreign policy but instead a personal mission to get the president damaging information on a political rival ahead of an election.

Taylor, meanwhile, directly confirmed a quid pro quo in which Trump withheld security assistance and a White House meeting while demanding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly commit to investigating the Bidens and baseless allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

Ambassador Bill Taylor, charge d\'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, testifes during a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., November 13, 2019. Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Here are the biggest takeaways from Wednesday’s impeachment hearing:

The Democrats‘ lawyer ran circles around the Republicans‘ lawyer. Daniel Goldman, a veteran former federal prosecutor who asked questions for the Democrats, used the 45 minutes allotted to him to draw out a cohesive line of questioning and a vivid narrative from Kent and Taylor of Trump’s pressure campaign in Ukraine. Goldman’s performance contrasted starkly with that of Steve Castor, the lawyer for the Republican side who veered off course, was unable to establish a clear line of inquiry, and often tried — and failed — to bait the witnesses into caving to GOP talking points. Twitter noticed the difference too.

The Democratic strategy: Keep it simple. Goldman kept his questions short and sharp, and let Taylor and Kent do all the talking. The result was a dramatic and lucid account of Trump’s conduct from the two career officials, both of whom have no skin in the game and have a decades-long history of nonpartisan public service.

The Republican strategy: Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. The following is a sample of the various defenses GOP lawmakers trotted out. There was no quid pro quo. Even if there were a quid pro quo, countries do that all the time. It doesn’t matter that Trump initially withheld military aid because Ukraine eventually received it. Trump was justified in holding up the aid because he wanted Ukraine to investigate itself for corruption. The Democrats colluded with Ukraine. The witnesses have never spoken directly with Trump, so they’re not credible. The entire impeachment inquiry is a sham.

The following is a sample of the various defenses GOP lawmakers trotted out.

rudy giuliani (Photo by Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)