House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) – 11/13/19. C-SPAN.

One of the dumber things that’s transpired throughout this impeachment hearing is the laundry list of career bureaucrats, who obviously have a lot invested in Ukrainian relations, refusing to admit what we already know: That Ukrainian officials meddled in the 2016 election.

Fiona Hill, who’s currently testifying before Schiff’s committee about Trump-Ukraine (although she’s another witness who didn’t actually witness anything), decided to take a low shot at Republicans during her opening statement.

https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1197494644097142784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1197494644097142784&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fbonchie%2F2019%2F11%2F21%2Fimpeachment-hearing-update-blog-fiona-hill-david-holmes-edition%2F

That’s a totally unbiased journalist from The Washington Post squeeing there, but I digress.

But to the meat of what Hill says, it’s simply false. To try to say it’s simply Russian propaganda that Ukraine meddled in 2016 is a nonsensical assertion. Hill isn’t stupid. She knows that by saying that, she’s providing cover for bad actions and reinforcing a false dichotomy that if Russia meddled, then that somehow means Ukraine couldn’t have.

There is simply no factual debate about whether Ukraine tried to influence the 2016 election. We have multiple pieces of direct evidence from multiple sources.

A Politico piece from 2017, which outlined the actions of a DNC operative named Alexandra Chalupa to mine dirt on Trump from Ukrainian officials, has formed the most striking piece of proof.

Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election (against @realDonaldTrump) is FAR from a fictional narrative.

Here's the @politico headline from January 11, 2017 on this issue ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SBrT7FO8Ic

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 21, 2019

Chalupa, having previous contacts and being from Ukraine, was able to get the then-Ambassador to the U.S. to help her dig up damaging information. Again, this is not in dispute.

Secondly, we also had the private and public actions of several other Ukrainian officials, including one who wrote an op-ed warning about electing Trump. In other instances, Trump was trashed in private, showing the motivation to stop him from being elected.

Officials from Ukraine acted to undermine Trump’s campaign. Period.

Getting back to the hearing, Hill not only was wrong when she said Ukraine didn’t meddle in the 2016 election, she also tried to take a shot at Republicans directly by saying that some on the committee don’t want to “accept” that Russia interfered.

That led to this fairly brutal takedown by Devin Nunes, who had obviously come prepared.

WATCH: Devin Nunes destroys Fiona Hill's bizarre false claim about Republicans denying Russian meddling in the 2016 election. pic.twitter.com/nRkD80GtYS

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) November 21, 2019

Look, I’m sure Hill is a perfectly nice lady. But whoever wrote her opening statement (it was likely her lawyers) did her no favors here. No Republican on the committee has said Russian interference didn’t happen. In fact, while led by Nunes, they released a 200+ page report detailing Russia’s actions and how to combat them.

Yet, some are still trying to pretend that Russia and Ukraine couldn’t have both been bad at the same time. That’s just ridiculous and that argument shows a strong inherent bias.

Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. While Obama was in office, companies were stealing millions of dollars in aid money to put in the pockets of oligarchs. They didn’t want that gravy train to end and it’s no coincidence that Trump’s skepticism of Ukraine has been met with such full force from those that stood to lose the most.

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