“My holy Name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel. I will not let My holy Name be profaned anymore, and the Gentiles will know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel.”
Ezekiel 39: 7
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I Feel Sorry for the People of Ukraine and President Zelensky
I feel sorry for the people of Ukraine and their new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The impeachment hearing in the House Intelligence Committee focused a spotlight on all of them, and it wasn’t a favorable light.
Yesterday was a particularly bad day for them. David Holmes, a State Department employee at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, said that Ambassador Gordon Sondland told him, “Trump doesn’t give a shit about Ukraine….He only cares about big stuff that benefits the president — like the Biden investigation that Mr. Giuliani was pushing.”
To the people of Ukraine and President Zelensky, the veracity of Mr. Holmes’ testimony is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter to them what President Trump actually told Ambassador Sondland. The only thing that matters to them is what Holmes said in an open hearing in the House that was broadcast around the world.
Holmes could and should have said, “Chairman Schiff, some of my remarks should be made in a classified hearing.”
Holmes didn’t do that. He blurted out hurtful words that should have been classified IF THEY WERE TRUE.
The fact that Holmes didn’t ask for a classified venue suggests to me that his assertions were not true. After all, he is a State Department employee. He knew that what he was about to say would cause great damage to U.S.-Ukraine relations.
FYI: That’s one reason why the president has executive privilege. Many conversations with the president should not be made public for very good reasons. In this instance, Holmes was quoting Sondland, not President Trump, but Sondland was supposedly reporting accurately about things President Trump told him or things that he heard the president had said. Given what we know about Sondland, he may have been sharing his wild imaginings, i.e., his “presumptions”.
It doesn’t matter. The Ukrainian people and President Zelensky heard the words that Holmes said, and they think President Trump said them and/or believes them.
Stated another way, Holmes version of what Ambassador Sondland told him is “the truth” for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. From their perspective, it’s an ugly truth even if it’s a lie. It’s an unforgettable truth no matter what was actually said.
Schiff Blew It
If Adam Schiff knew in advance what Holmes would say and he allowed Holmes to say it in a public setting, then Schiff has no business serving as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
If Schiff knew what was about to be said and he allowed it to be said in a public setting, he shouldn’t have a security clearance at any level.
The video below is part of Holmes opening statement. The video includes Holmes comments that I referred to and his comments about a phone call that Ambassador Sondland made to President Trump while they were at a restaurant in Kiev “on an outdoor terrace”.
The Phone Call
Holmes said that Ambassador Sondland called President Trump on his cell phone during lunch at a restaurant in Kiev “on an outdoor terrace” to talk about classified information. That’s a no-no, and it’s not a minor slip-up. It’s a big deal.
Sondland is not a 12-year-old girl who is infatuated with her phone. He should have known better than to do that, unless he was showing off for the people with him at the table.
I bet Sondland was showing off. I think he was calling the President of the United States for his companions to see, and the president took his call. Sondland probably thought it made him look like a big man.
If that’s not showing off, I don’t know what is. That’s the kind of thing that very immature people do. It’s not the kind of thing that serious, professional people do.
My opinion about Ambassador Sondland is not positive.
Holmes said that he “sat directly across from Ambassador Sondland” at the table. A couple of other people were with them.
Holmes said that Sondland’s phone was “not on speakerphone”, but he could “hear the president’s voice through the earpiece of the phone”.
Holmes said that “the president’s voice was loud and recognizable”.
I Smell a Rat
I think Holmes was lying. If the House impeaches President Trump, there will be a trial in the Senate. I hope the president’s lawyers obtain a warrant to get that cell phone. They need to recreate that scenario to determine if there was any truth to what Mr. Holmes said.
Katie and I live on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina. We take long walks on the roads near our house. It’s a wooded, rural area. All we can hear when we walk is birds chirping, squirrels barking, boats on the lake from about a hundred yards away, and traffic on I-85 from at least a mile away. None of those sounds are loud, but we can hear them in the background. If there is any wind, we can’t hear most of those sounds.
Many times, we receive or make phone calls while we are walking. There is no way that both Katie and I could hear clearly what is being said on the phone without the speakerphone. We’ve tried it. It just doesn’t work. We certainly couldn’t hear well enough to make out word-for-word clips of conversations, and I don’t care how loudly the person on the phone with us is speaking.
An outside terrace at a fancy restaurant on a busy street in Kiev during lunch hour is a lot louder than the roads we walk on. I will believe that Holmes was lying unless someone can prove to me that he wasn’t lying.
Hurtful Words
Be that as it may, these words will reverberate in Ukraine for many years to come:
“President Zelensky will do anything he [President Trump] asks him to do.”
If Holmes wanted to pull the rug out from under President Zelensky, that was a good way to do it. He might as well have said that President Zelensky is President Trump’s puppet on a string. That’s exactly how those words will be interpreted.
That’s what Holmes said Sondland told President Trump on the phone. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sondland actually said those words. He is not an impressive person, but Holmes should not have reported that conversation in a public hearing.
Adam Schiff should be ashamed for letting Holmes say those words in public, but as all of us should know by now, Adam Schiff is shameless.
That’s another good name for Schiff: Shameless Adam Schiff.
The president should consider alternating the names he uses for Schiff: Shifty Schiff, Shameless Schiff, Big Head Schiff, Pencil Neck Schiff.
David Holmes and Adam Schiff are disgraceful.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy held a press conference during which he explained some of the real costs associated with Adam Schiff’s and Nancy Pelosi’s show-trial in the House Intelligence Committee. Take a look:
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
