“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace called the testimony to the House Intelligence Committee of William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, “very damaging to President Trump” during impeachment hearings analysis this afternoon.
Taylor testified around Trump’s urging of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden as the first witness chosen by House Democrats to testify.
“I think that William Taylor was a very impressive witness and was very damaging to the president,” Wallace said.
“He took very copious notes at almost every conversation — when he put quotes in his opening statement, he said those were direct quotes from what was said. It also doesn’t hurt that he has a voice like Edward R. Murrow,” Wallace added.
“He is a pretty impressive presence up there. And, I think, very nonpolitical,” Wallace noted. “He went out of his way to talk about what he knew, what he was specifically testament to. The only thing he talked about was a strong feeling that it was in the U.S. national security interest to support Ukraine in the fight against Russia. But he certainly wasn’t taking any partisan position.”
Taylor came out of retirement earlier this year after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked him to lead the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Trump slammed Taylor and the lawyer as “Never Trumpers,” in an early morning tweet today ahead of the televised hearings.
When asked, Taylor answered “no” as to whether he was a “Never Trumper.”
Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano called Trump’s “foul language” and “dog whistles of lawless behavior to many of his supporters” call into question “the president’s fitness for office.”
“He publicly calls people crude names, uses foul language, and sends dog whistles of lawless behavior to many of his supporters,” said Napoltano. “All of that is a question of free speech, personal taste and political risk.”
“But threats to ignore parts of the Constitution are not matters of speech, taste or risk,” the former judge continued. “They reveal character traits but question the president’s fitness for office.”
Napolitano has emerged as one of Trump’s “bluntest critics” on Fox News amid the impeachment inquiry over the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
Napolitano was asked if he would vote to impeach the president if he were a Democrat in the House.
“If I could modify your question to ask if there’s a legal basis to argue high crimes and misdemeanors, then the answer is yes,” Napolitano said. “That’s really beyond dispute … If I were a Democrat in the House, which I am not and never will be, I would vote to impeach.”
The impeachment hearings continue on Friday.