Americans can give thanks for witnesses
As former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson noted in his eulogy for President George H.W. Bush: “Those that travel the high road of humility in Washington are not bothered by heavy traffic.” No, and neither are those who travel the high road of courage.
Indeed, unlike in John F. Kennedy’s time, Washington abounds less today with profiles in courage and more with profiles in cowardice, especially among Republican members of Congress, who will not take a stand without first taking a poll, who would never risk doing what’s right over doing what’s politically popular, and who would never, ever break with leaders of their own party. Unlike John McCain.
Which is why the impeachment hearings proved so reassuring. Here, we witnessed more than a dozen brave Americans who confirmed under oath that Donald Trump had, in fact, ordered that congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine, as well as a coveted White House visit, be blocked until the president of Ukraine announced he was launching an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 Democratic opponent.
What’s remarkable is not only what they said, but who they are. They are all career diplomats. They’ve all served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, many of them in life-threatening posts. They were all members of the Trump administration. Most of them still are. And — here’s what’s most significant — they were all ordered by the White House NOT to testify.
But they all defied the White House and appeared before Congress, anyway. Why? Not because, as Republicans tried to argue, they hate Trump. But because, having taken an oath to defend the Constitution, and not whoever happens to be president, when they saw something wrong, when they saw something that could jeopardize national security, they knew they had an obligation to report it, no matter the risk to their own job.
It was a classic case of “See something, say something.” As simple, yet as powerful, as that.
Whatever the eventual outcome of the impeachment inquiry, the witnesses we heard from represent a whole new collection of American heroes. Every one of them deserves our gratitude and praise for telling the truth, but especially Marie Yovanovitch, William Taylor, Alexander Vindman, Gordon Sondland and Fiona Hill.
Yovanovitch, Trump’s ambassador to Ukraine, testified to being smeared by President Trump and forced out of her job because she disagreed with Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to bribe Ukraine’s new president to investigate Biden. Taylor, who replaced Yovanovitch, said the order to withhold Ukraine aid came from Trump himself. Lt. Col. Vindman, National Security Council director for European Affairs, was so concerned about what he personally heard on the July 25 call between Trump and
Ukraine President Zelensky that he immediately reported it to NSC officials.
Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, admitted being ordered by Trump to work with Giuliani on the Biden investigation. Hill,
Trump’s White House adviser on Russia, told of strong disagreements inside the White House of the Trump/Giuliani plan, with then-NSC Director John Bolton saying he wanted no part of Giuliani’s “drug deal.”
Every witness was credible. There’s no doubt they were telling the truth. And their testimony was all the more powerful in that they were not partisan anti-Trumpers — several, in fact, said they took no position on impeachment. They appeared as career civil servants who answered the call to be “fact witnesses” only. They were so persuasive, in fact, that Republican members of the committee didn’t even try to challenge them on the facts. In true Trumpian fashion, they resorted instead to questioning their character or qualifications.
To their numbers, we must now add former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, who resigned last week rather than follow Trump’s orders to let a Navy SEAL get away with war crimes. “I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took ... to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he declared. If only Trump shared the same values.
How refreshing. This Thanksgiving, we actually had something to be thankful for: the example of true American patriots who put good of the country over the demands of any political party and who have the courage to do the right thing.