- "This anonymous so-called whistleblower with no firsthand knowledge who's biased against the president ... who is the reason we're all sitting here today, we'll never get a chance to question this individual," Jordan complained.
- "I'd be glad to have the person who started it all come and testify. President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there," Welch shot back.
- Two State Department officials corroborated the claims in the initial whistleblower complaint that Trump used "the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."
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See the viral exchange when a Republican tried calling out Trump’s whistleblower during the blockbuster impeachment hearings, and a Democrat had the perfect response
Democratic Rep. Peter Welch had the perfect response ready to go when GOP Rep. Jim Jordan suggested at a Wednesday hearing that the anonymous whistleblower should testify before Congress.
Peter Welch
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When GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio suggested at a public impeachment hearing on Wednesday that the author of an anonymous whistleblower complaint against President Donald Trump should testify before the committee, Democratic Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont had the perfect response ready to go.
At the hearing, Jordan, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called for the whistleblower whose identity is unknown to come before the committee and further questioned their credibility.
"This anonymous so-called whistleblower with no firsthand knowledge who's biased against the president...who is the reason we're all sitting here today, we'll never get a chance to question this individual," Jordan complained. "We'll not get to check out his credibility, his bias, his motivations ... this is a sad day for our country."
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"I say to my colleague, I'd be glad to have the person who started it all come and testify. President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there," Welch shot back at Jordan, prompting a resounding chorus of laughter throughout the committee room.
In early September, an anonymous whistleblower complaint lodged by a member of the intelligence community said that in a series of events culminating in a July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump used "the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."
The complaint detailed concerns that Trump, days after withholding a nearly $400 million military-aid package , used the call with Zelensky to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian oil-and-gas company , from 2014 to 2019. Trump and his allies have, without evidence, accused Biden of using his power as vice president to urge Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma in order to protect Hunter.
The whistleblower's complaint has been corroborated by the White House's summary notes of the July 25 call, White House officials themselves, and the sworn testimony of several career diplomatic and national-security officials.
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Multiple diplomats have now testified under oath both in closed-door and public sessions that the Trump administration explicitly conditioned lifting the hold of military aid to Ukraine on Zelensky publicly announcing investigations into Burisma , and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to benefit Hillary Clinton.
At Wednesday's hearing, acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent added more damning details to the allegations.
Taylor testified that the White House did, in fact, withhold the aid in exchange for investigations and said it was "alarming" because placing a hold on military aid puts "lives at stake."
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SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about Trump's impeachment process: What's happened, who the players are, and what comes next
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