If you thought your Wednesday was rough, at least it wasn’t as bad as Donald Trump’s.
While the rest of us trudged through another humpday of ungrateful spouses and crabby co-workers, the Washington Post reports that a U.S. appeals court ruled that Congress can gain access to eight years of Trump’s tax returns:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit let stand an earlier ruling against the president that affirmed Congress’s investigative authority on a day when the House was holding its first public impeachment inquiry hearing. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said in response to Wednesday’s decision that the president’s legal team “will be seeking review at the Supreme Court.”
The D.C. Circuit has given Trump seven days to file an appeal.
After the appeal process runs its course and Trump presumably takes an L, Congress will proceed to make our alleged president’s life complete hell, and hopefully, prove that not only has Trump exploited our tax system using loopholes and tax breaks only available to the insanely rich, but that he and his family are beneficiaries of his own 2017 tax-cut law—just in time for his impeachment inquiry!
Speaking of which, the public-facing portion of that investigation kicked off yesterday and word on the street is Melania’s baby daddy wasn’t particularly happy about it.
“I hear it’s a joke. I haven’t watched. I haven’t watched for one minute because I’ve been with [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan]. Which is much more important, as far as I am concerned,” Trump told White House reporters on Wednesday. “This is a sham, and it shouldn’t be allowed.”
So what exactly happened that ruffled his feathers toupée?
Well for one, according to the Chicago Tribune, we learned that Trump—and his lapdog Rudy Giuliani—were a bit obsessed with digging up dirt on the Biden family:
The acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified that President Donald Trump spoke by phone to the European Union ambassador, who was in a restaurant, and Taylor’s diplomatic staff could overhear the president ask about “the investigations.” Taylor further testified the staff asked about the call after it ended and that EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland said the president cared more about investigations into the Biden family than he did Ukraine’s security.
This revelation might not come as a surprise to anyone, but it’s still new info linking our Commander-in-Tweet to the Biden investigations. It’s also a classic example of Trump being Trump. Especially considering he’s previously downplayed his relationship with Sondland despite the fact that Trump appointed him after he donated a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration.
We also learned that while Democrats came correct with credible witnesses like Taylor and State Department official George Kent, Republicans hid behind a smokescreen and deployed what NBC News dismissed as a flimsy, “hearsay” defense, making it easy for Democrats to counter with what basically amounted to “Well, what the hell else am I suppose to do since Trump and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House Chief of Staff, refuse to testify?”
Per NBC News, Republicans also unleashed their mutant power—derailment:
“The Democrats have a long habit of accusing Republicans of offenses they themselves are committing,” said House Intel Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes. “Let’s recall, for years, they accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia when they themselves were colluding with Russia by funding and spreading the Steele dossier which relied on Russian sources. And now they accuse President Trump of malfeasance in Ukraine when they themselves are culpable.”
See what they did there?
In all, with more hearings to come on Friday, the Democrats did an exceptional job of setting the stage for Sondland to become the Beyoncé of this impeachment inquiry. They also applied pressure and easily outclassed an unprepared GOP.
Are we any closer to booting Trump out of office? Not yet, but if he can have a bad Wednesday, hopefully, his Friday will be even worse as these proceedings continue.