Trump’s imperfect day

President Trump still says his July 25 conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was “perfect,” and certainly not indicative of a plot to force a foreign leader into announcing a spurious investigation into a domestic political rival.

His already discredited denial was buried a few feet deeper underground in Tuesday’s impeachment inquiry hearings. A quartet of administration national security officials left no doubt they saw the call as the American president pressuring the Ukranian one to play ball in a U.S. election.

Perhaps more important, putting the call in proper context, National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told the House Intelligence Committee that the call came 15 days after a key NSC meeting in which E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland told Ukrainian dignitaries that no face-to-face meeting between the two presidents would occur unless and until Ukraine opened up “investigations.”

“I stated to Ambassador Sondland that this was inappropriate and had nothing to do with national security,” testified Vindman. Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker backed up Vindman’s characterization while dismissing the GOP’s running smears of Joe Biden’s character.

None of the Republican members’ shameless insinuations that the Soviet-born Purple Heart-wearing Vindman had some dual loyalty to Ukraine can erase these facts.

Wednesday, Sondland, Trump’s most consistent functionary vis-a-vis Ukraine with the possible exception of Rudy Giuliani, appears before the House.

Will Sondland maintain his previously offered, arguably perjurious, testimony about his communications with the president, or will he affirm what a half dozen others have now made clear under oath?