archived recording It started with a whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s contact with a foreign leader. archived recording (donald trump) I had a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine, like perfect. archived recording (nancy pelosi) Today, I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. archived recording Drama expected on Capitol Hill this week with the most crucial testimony yet. At least eight witnesses are scheduled to testify this week in public hearings.

julie davis

Hey, it’s Julie Davis. It’s week two of the impeachment inquiry, and we’re preparing for tomorrow’s hearings, when we’re going to hear from four witnesses all on the same day. And Nick Fandos, our congressional reporter, is going to be there. He’s on Capitol Hill right now preparing to take in all this new testimony and try to digest it and figure out where we are. So I’m going to give him a call and see what he’s thinking about what we can expect.

house press aide

House Daily Press.

julie davis

Hi, can I talk to Nick Fandos, please?

house press aide

One moment. Let me see where he is.

julie davis

There’s usually good hold music.

house press aide

One moment.

nick fandos

This is Nick.

julie davis

Hey, Nick, it’s Julie.

nick fandos

Hey, Julie.

julie davis

So let’s talk about how tomorrow’s going to go. Why do we have four witnesses? Last week, on the first day, there were two — Bill Taylor and George Kent. And Taylor really was the standout witness. He was the one who attracted all the attention. George Kent sort of got lost in the shuffle. And then on the second day, Marie Yovanovitch was by herself. It was just her on the panel. And that seemed to really open up a lot of room for Democrats to draw out her story in a compelling way. So I’m just kind of wondering, why call four people on the same day?

nick fandos

So I think that there’s a couple reasons. The main one being the Democrats just feel like they’re in a time crunch. The House is out for Thanksgiving next week. And I think they want to move through a lot of these people quickly. The other thing is that tomorrow, there’s technically two hearings — one in the morning and one in the afternoon. And the afternoon is just two witnesses that the Republicans have requested. And they’re pretty ticked off, frankly, that those witnesses got shoved in the afternoon. That’s when, typically, attendance is pretty poor for congressional hearings. People aren’t going to be tuning in so much. So they’re accusing Democrats of trying to bury those witnesses.

julie davis

That happened to them last week with their questioning, right? Like, they didn’t get to do their questioning till the afternoon when the viewership was way down.

nick fandos

Yeah, totally. And I think they may go into the evening this time. It’ll be even worse.

julie davis

So who are these four people testifying tomorrow? How is that going to work?

nick fandos

It’s Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who’s the top Ukraine expert at the White House and was very alarmed by the phone call that he overheard between President Trump and the Ukrainian president. Another witness worked for Mike Pence, the vice president. She also listened in on the call. She didn’t think it was great. Testified that she thought was improper, but did not raise her concerns in the same way Vindman did. And then in the afternoon, you’ve got Vindman’s boss, Morrison, on the National Security Council at the White House, and Kurt Volker, who was the special envoy to Ukraine and was one of the so-called “three amigos“, who were deputized by President Trump to run Ukraine policy.

julie davis

Last week, we really heard about the context in which this call happened. Career diplomats who talked about how they felt pushed aside by Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland and, to some degree, Volker himself, in a way that allowed this call to happen. What’s interesting to me about tomorrow is, it seems like we’re circling back to the July 25 call, the thing that started this whole saga, the thing that touched off the whistleblower complaint. You have people who listened in, in real time to President Trump and the president of Ukraine. Three out of the four, I think, were on that call?

nick fandos

Yeah, that’s right. So I think we’re going to hear really different impressions of that phone call. Vindman was really alarmed by it and went and raised his concerns immediately with White House lawyers. And that fits the frame of a cover up, that the White House immediately tried to move to lock down this transcript, because they knew it was problematic. Morrison, on the other hand, is going to talk about how he didn’t see anything improper with the call and did suggest that it ought to be locked down. But only because he thought it might be — in this polarized environment — might be politically unflattering to the president. So we’re going to hear a lot about what the White House was thinking during this consequential call that will both kind of push against the president’s characterization that it was perfect and then also maybe lend a little bit of authority behind that claim.

julie davis

So who is the single witness you’re most eager to hear from? And what do we want to hear from them?

nick fandos

Kurt Volker. He was the first witness who did a private interview with lawmakers more than a month ago now. And basically at the time told them a lot of details that themselves were not flattering for the president and that helped them assemble their story. But his own conclusion was that there had not been a quid pro quo. And so a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since he testified. A lot of other witnesses have come forward that have made him look either willfully ignorant, dense, like he may have been misleading the committee. Who knows? So I’m really curious, does his testimony evolve at all? And if so, that could be a big blow to the president and his defense, because they’ve really leaned on him. Or does he stick to his guns and say, I was deeply involved in all of this. I worked closely with Gordon Sondland. I spoke with Rudy Giuliani. I spoke with the president. And I don’t think that there was, in the end, any quid pro quo. And in that case, I think the Republicans will be pretty pleased with him.

julie davis

Great. Well, thanks. Talk soon.

nick fandos

Thanks, Julie.

julie davis