Live: Four Witnesses to Testify in Public Impeachment Hearings

Harry Reid Says Early Voting States Iowa, New Hampshire ‘Not Representative of the Country Anymore’

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said on Nov. 18 that early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire are “not representative” of the United States in the modern era. “I don’t think it matters what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire because those states are not representative of the country anymore,” the longtime Nevada senator told reporters in Las Vegas. Reid said his state of Nevada is the third to weigh in on the election but the first that looks like the rest of the country, with a sizeable Latino population and significant groups of Asian American and black voters. While Nevada’s population is about 48 percent white, Iowa has a white population of about 85 percent and New Hampshire has a white population of about 90 percent, according to…

The third day of the House Intelligence Committee’s public hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump began today.

Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in his opening statement, “How could our diplomats urge Ukraine to refrain from political investigations of its own citizens, if the president of the United States was urging Ukraine to engage in precisely the same kind of corrupt and political investigations of one of our own citizens?”

While Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, noted that the mainstream media’s reporting hasn’t lined up with the testimonials.

Career diplomats have provided “second-hand and third-hand objections with” Trump’s foreign policy mandates,” he said.

“They were unable to identify any crime or impeachment offense that the president committed,” he remarked, adding that this “is the same preposterous reporting that the media offered on the Russia hoax.”

The media has “learned absolute nothing” in its reporting on the investigation led by former special counsel Robert Mueller and have moved on to Ukraine.

Lt. Col. Vindman, an official in the National Security Council (NSC) and Vice President Mike Pence’s aide Jennifer Williams testified.

Williams is a career foreign service officer who specializes in Eastern European affairs, while Vindman is a career Army officer who was the Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, center, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Oct. 29, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Williams said that the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky was unusual. The phone call showed that Trump wanted his counterpart to look into alleged election interference and former Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm that has long been suspected of corruption. Trump has denied the allegations.

“I found the July 25th phone call unusual because, in contrast to other presidential calls I had observed, it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter,” she said.

Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a National Security Council aide, are also slated to testify.

The committee will also hear on Wednesday from Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale, a State Department official. On Thursday, David Holmes, a State Department official in Kyiv, and Fiona Hill, a former top NSC staff member for Europe and Russia, will appear.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Oklahoma Walmart Shooting Leaves 3 Dead, Police Say

At least three people were killed during a shooting at a Walmart in Oklahoma on Monday morning, it was reported. Fox affiliate KOKH reported on the deaths, saying the shooting occurred in Duncan, which is about 75 miles south of Oklahoma City. KFOR also reported that the three people were killed. It cited the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford told KSWO that the people were shot and killed outside the store by a vehicle, and one of the people who was killed was identified as the shooter. District Attorney Jason Hicks is on the scene of the crime, telling KOKH that the scene is contained and it is not an active shooter situation anymore. Several people were wounded in the incident, according to The Associated Press, which…