Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

Tag: impeachment

A Partial Transcript Of Fiona Hill’s Impeachment Testimony, 11/21/19

“Settle. Settle down. We meet once again to discuss the impeachment of Donald Trump, President of the United States. Perhaps one day, we will be freed from this legislative hell, but not today. And perhaps also my Republican colleagues will get a sense of decorum. But today, they have brought a sign.”

JIM JORDAN UNROLLING A POSTER THAT SAYS “SCHIFF IS A CHOAD” IN COMIC SANS NOISE

“Very mature, Congressman Jordan.”

“Choad!”

“The gentleman will suspend. We have two witnesses this morning, but the sake of comic clarity, we’re just going to interview one of them. It’s a dialogue-based bit; it gets confusing if there’s too many characters. To that end, we welcome the former top official in charge of Russia on the National Security Council, Dr. Fiona Hill. Thank you for appearing, Dr. Hill.”

“Thank you for having me.”

“Dr. Hill, tell the committee a little about your background.”

“I was born in the dirty, Druidy part of England. My father was a coal miner, and my mother a fishwife. I saw the sun once, when I was six, and was severely thrashed for it by a handful of nuns. My village had a fourth-division football team, and the highest incident of three-eyed kids in all of Great Britain. I had nine sisters, originally, but the Irish killed two and the sea took one. It was a rough kind of place. Hardscrabble.”

“It certainly does sound like a hardscrabble upbringing.”

“What? No, that was the name of the village. Hardscrabble-Upon-Scrumpthrop. Such memories.”

“And after that?”

“Harvard, doctorate, fellowships. As one does.”

“Dr. Hill, I’m going to yield the rest of my time to the ranking member of the minority party, Congressman Nunes, because I think it’s going to be funny as hell. Devin?”

“Thank you, Chairman Schiff, for allowing me to take part in this embarrassing and sad spectacle run by crybabies and bedwetters. Dr. Hill, good morning.”

“Howja do.”

“Dr. Hill, how can you be sure that Ukraine is not actually America’s greatest enemy?”

“How can I be sure?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“By thinking about it? Reading a book or two?”

“You are aware of Halloween?”

“The holiday?”

“Yes. The holiday.”

“I am aware of Halloween, yes.”

“Then you know that sometimes people like to play dress-up! Disguise themselves as Captain Americas and spooky ghosts, but that’s not who they are. They’re just liars, Dr. Hill. Maybe that’s what’s going on with Ukraine. Maybe Russia’s our friend and Ukraine’s our enemy.”

“No, sir. That is utter lunacy.”

“If Ukraine is not our enemy, then why did several of its politicians refer to President Trump as an idiot during the 2016 campaign?”

“Probably for the same reason everyone else called him an idiot: simple observation.”

“So you admit it!”

“That President Trump is an idiot? Yes, you tricked me into saying it. Good work, Congressman.”

“Dr, Hill, are you and Hunter Biden in cahoots?”

“I’ve never even met the man.”

“A cahoot? What about a single cahoot?”

“There is no grand conspiracy here, Congressman, no matter how badly you wish to see one. The President of the United States and his thug lawyer went blundering about international diplomacy, and they made a grand cock-up of it.”

“That’s your version of the truth. What about the Swedenborgians?”

“Don’t bring them into this.”

“The Hospitallers of Malta.”

“Not part of it.”

“Genetically-engineered succulents.”

“No super-plants, Congressman.”

“We cannot rule them out.”

“We absolutely can. This story has no fantastical elements whatsoever; it’s tiresomely common. Morons committed crimes. That’s all that happened.”

“Pirates.”

“Stop this. Stop this, Congressman. Stop muddying the waters with clearly-fabricated nonsense. These tactics are helping do nothing but further divide an already bifurcated nation, and you’re doing it on purpose. Please, for the love of God: stop it.”

“I want to discuss the possibility of pirates.”

“You weren’t listening at all, huh?”

“Dr. Hill, were you ever directly instructed by the President to commit a crime?”

“No.”

“Case closed.”

“Not how it works.”

“Can you describe your relationship with the Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.”

“It was like having a tumor that used Axe Bodyspray. As in: he was malignant, he was infectious, and he smelled like Axe Bodyspray. Once, he called me ‘Toots.'”

“Only the once?”

“I broke his thumb with a judo hold called ‘Ferret sleeps in the barn without bothering anyone.’ He always referred to me by my proper title after that.”

“You don’t think that was a bit harsh, Dr. Hill?”

“I could have broken his pelvis.”

“Where else were you and Ambassador Sondland at odds?”

“Everywhere. At every point of contact, there was friction. The man is a tit and a twit. All he wants to do is go for dinner and have hookers sit on his face. It was the worst-kept secret in Kyiv. Behind his back, everyone called Sondland ‘Ol’ Chairface.’ It sounds better in Ukrainian.”

“These are scurrilous rumors. Can anyone verify them?”

“Hookers. Lots and of of hookers. It is impossible to overstate how sleazy these people are.”

These people? Ah-ha! So you are a Never-Trumper.”

“No, sir. I am a Never-Numpty. As in, ‘Do not make me work with numpties, as I am a hyper-competent professional.’ Yet, I was forced to work cheek-to-jowl with these mental paramecium spraying their felony-sauces all about.”

BRICK BEING THROWN THROUGH A WINDOW NOISE!

“Holy shit! Jesus, what was that?”

COMMITTEE CHAIR PICKING UP A BRICK NOISE

“It’s got a piece of paper wrapped around it. And there’s something written on the paper. It’s written in Sharpie. It says FIONA HILL IS NOW DEPORTED. Okay, let’s take ten minutes while I deal with this.”

GAVEL NOISE!

A Partial Transcript Of Ambassador Sondland’s Testimony Before The House, 11/20/19

HOUSE HEARING ROOM – MORNING

“People, settle. Order in the room. Phones away. I will remind everyone, including my fellow distinguished members, that you may not live-tweet while we’re in session, especially if what you’re live-tweeting is cruel memes of me.”

“Point of order!”

“Oh, don’t start immediately, Congresswoman Stefanik.”

“Chairman Schiff, I resent being singled out like that.”

“I didn’t say your name.”

“Everyone knows I have great memes, Chairman.”

“Shush. We are now several days into this impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. I know it seems like several weeks, or maybe eternity, but I swear it’s only been a few days. President Trump does funny things to time. That’s not part of these proceedings, but everyone knows it’s true. Anyway, today we welcome back into this chamber for a record third appearance, the United States’ Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.”

“Call me Gordo.”

GAVEL NOISE!

“It is the ruling of the chair that the witness not be called ‘Gordo.’ Ambassador Sondland, you were one of the first people to appear in closed depositions for these inquiries, during which you…forgot…several important events. Upon reflection and the testimony of others indicating your participation in said events, you re-appeared before the committee and amended your statement. And now here you are again.”

“I remember everything.”

“Ambassador, did you see that Roger Stone is going away for ten years for lying to Congress?”

“I did. I saw that. And I felt that. Y’know how you see another guy get kicked in the nuts, and then your nuts hurt? It was like that. I remember evvvvvvvverything. I’ll draw you sketches. I’ll go undercover. I’ll wear a wire. Whatever. I am here, Chairman Schiff, to talk.”

“One hopes so. The Chair now yields to floor for the opening statement of the ranking member of the committee, Mr. Nunes.”

“Chairman, I have only this to offer about this sham of a witch hunt.”

FART JOKE NOISE!

“Jesus, Nunes!”

“That’s a Sacramento Stinker right there. Just like this whole thing, man. Stinks.”

“The Chair retracts the ranking member’s time as penalty for the butt bomb. Not right, Nunes! This is an old building! The ventilation’s crap in here!”

“If America has to smell you, then you have to smell me.”

“The gentleman will suspend. Ambassador, let’s get past that foul behavior and back to your testimony. I want to go straight to the heart of the matter: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?'”

“Yes.”

“Who knew about it?”

“Literally everyone.”

“Be more specific, please. Who knew about the deal to exchange military aid for political favors?”

“President, obviously. Volker, Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mulvaney. The Vice-President, too. Rudy, of course. Bolton. Kid Rock knew.”

“Kid Rock? The singer?”

“Hey, Kid Rock is more than just a singer. Super-talented guy. Been a guest at my hotels on many occasions. Much neater than you’d imagine. Classy guy.”

“Ambassador Sondland, why was Kid Rock involved in international diplomacy?”

“He hangs around the White House a lot, and sometimes he just kinda gets in on things. He set up the second North Korean summit all by himself. Not a tight ship over there, if I’m honest.”

“We’ve heard.”

“Rudy Giuliani was the point man on this one. The President told me to do whatever Rudy wanted.”

“And what did Rudy want to do?”

“Depended on what time of day it was. When he was sober-ish in the mornings, he wanted Ukrainian President Zelensky to announce investigations into Hunter Biden. By the afternoon, his theories would become more florid, involving aliens, the descendants of the Plantagenet line, and some sort of never-ending war between draculas and wolfmans. And by nine or ten, he’d crap his pants.”

“This is the personal lawyer to the President of the United States?”

“Yeah.”

“And did you speak to the President himself about the quid pro quo?”

“Twice. The first call was to discuss pressuring President Zelensky into investigating, or at least announcing that he was investigating, Hunter Biden and Burisma.”

“And the second?”

“Was to deny making the first call.”

“Ah.”

“The follow-up conversation took place on September 9th, some hours after the whole Ukrainian affair had been made public. The President said hello, and then shouted ‘I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO!’ at me a few times, and then hung up.”

“Okay. What did you think that meant?”

“I can’t get into the President’s motives, Chairman.”

“Time is now yielded to the counsel for the minority, Mr. Castor.”

“Good morning, Ambassador. Before you were named to your current position, did you have any experience in diplomacy?”

“None whatsoever.”

“Then how did you get your job?”

“I bought it for a million dollars.”

“You bought your job. What does that say about you, sir?”

“Same thing it says about the guy who sold it to me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess I walked right into that one. Ambassador, earlier you mentioned a phone call with the President in which you assert that the Ukrainian deal was discussed.”

“Yes. And A$AP Rocky.”

“Is he related to Kid Rock?”

“I don’t believe so.”

“Well, I don’t believe you, sir. If the President made a phone call to you, then where is the evidence? When the President makes calls, they get logged.”

“Yes, but President Trump prefers using his iPhone. My staff logged the call, though, and made a transcription. But the Department of Justice all of my office’s seized my office’s documents and declared everything classified.”

“Oh.”

“Did you not know that?”

“Don’t worry about what I know, Ambassador. I’m not on trial here.”

“Neither am I.”

“Irregardless! Mr. Sondland, isn’t it possible that Rudy Giuliani was free-lancing?”

“No. I was instructed by the President to defer to Rudy on matters having to do with Ukraine.”

“Is it possible the President was being sarcastic when he told you that?”

“I don’t believe so.”

“Do you have any background in mesmerism, sir?”

“What now?”

“Mesmerism. Is it possible you hypnotized the President into committing crime?”

“I am unschooled in the mystical arts of persuasion.”

“Ambassador Sondland, if you were so concerned about that military aid getting to Ukraine, why didn’t you bring it up with anyone before now?”

“I did. I e-mailed several of the higher-ups in the administration. Plus I sent some certified letters. The official ones you have to sign for. Pompeo, Mulvaney, Pence: I have evidence of discussing the aid-for-investigations scheme with all of them.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, God.”

“You didn’t know that?”

“Dammit.”

MAMMOTH P.A. SYSTEM BEING SET UP RIGHT OUTSIDE THE CHAMBER NOISE!

“Testing? Testing? Where’s my testing? No one tests microphones like me, just one of the best in the world at doing it, maybe the absolute best. I do not know this Sondland, he looks like a loser, and I told him NO QUID PRO QUO. I was very strong in my statement, and that’s the end of it. Okay, that’s it.”

MAMMOTH P.A. SYSTEM GETTING TORN DOWN RIGHT OUTSIDE NOISE!

“That’s not okay. It’s just not how any of this is supposed to work. Let’s take ten minutes while I have a chat with the Capitol Police.”

A Partial Transcript Of The Impeachment Hearings, 11/15/19

HOUSE HEARING ROOM – MORNING

“Everyone settle down. Sit down. Enough. Calm down. We are beginning the second day of this august House’s impeachment inquiries into Donald Trump, and we need to step it up, folks. We need to class it up, and we need to step it up. Some people thought we lacked pizzazz. Another demographic said–we had some overnight polling done–that the first day of the hearings made them feel like America was ‘a car-struck dog on the side of the highway, dying but not dead.’ Those are tough reviews, folks.”

“Point of order!”

“Not recognized, Congresswoman Stefanik. I’m giving my opening statement.”

“Why are you censoring me, Chairman Schiff?”

“It is not censorship, Congresswoman.”

“Point of order.”

“You aren’t allowed to call for points of order during the opening statements. There are rules to this. Robert came up with them, and then we tweaked them.”

“I don’t know who this socialist traitor ‘Robert’ is, Chairman, but I have several points of order.”

“Now it’s several?”

“I demand the whistleblower be named, and then thrown into the nearest volcano.”

“The gentlewoman will suspend.”

“Volcano!”

“Suspend!”

GAVEL NOISE!

“Cut it out! We’re on teevee! This committee today welcomes the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.”

“Thank you, Chairman Schiff.”

“Ambassador, you have served under four different presidents, both Democratic and Republican. Your reputation among your peers and within the international community is one of reliability and honest brokerage. You have been the United States’ plenipotentiary in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, and in 2016 were asked by then-President Obama to become the ambassador to Ukraine, is that correct?

“Yes.”

“You were relieved of duty by President Trump is May of 2019. Were you given a reason for your dismissal?”

Given one? No. Did I know what was happening? Oh, yeah.”

“Walk us through it.”

“Rudy Giuliani wanted me fired.”

“That was a short walk.”

“Him and his gangster buddies had, like, nine or ten schemes going and Ukraine was one of them. I refused to get entangled in their sloppy nonsense, and so I had to go. I mean it: real gangsters. There are three guys in Rudy’s crew named Big Julie. Just blatant in their criminality.”

“I see.”

“They would start dice games in meetings. Incredibly unprofessional people.”

“This smear campaign by Mr. Giuliani went up the ladder to the President, didn’t it?”

“Yes. Apparently, President Trump discussed me with Ukrainian President Zelensky.”

“Anything positive?”

“No. He called me ‘nasty’ a bunch of times, and then some of the call is redacted, but I think he was making jokes about the size of my ankles. Which is inappropriate.”

“Very. How did you respond to these attacks?”

“Many of my colleagues at the State Department signed a letter protesting my treatment. It was brought to Secretary of State Pompeo, and he started crying. ‘He’ll tweet,’ he kept saying. ‘Oh, God, he’ll tweet.’ The man just dissolved. It was sickening.”

“I can imagine.”

EVERYONE IN THE ROOM’S CELL PHONE VIBRATING AT ONCE NOISE

“Madame Ambassador, if you’ll give us a second. Oh, God, he tweeted. I will quote the President’s message in order to get it on the record that the President of the United States is live-tweeting his own impeachment in real-time. This is surely what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. Ahem.

Weird Al Yankovic is no-good! Very strange things happen around her! Steals silverware, or so I’ve heard. Why does she keep lying?

“So, uh, that would be witness tampering, huh? I’ll just add that to the list. Miss Yovanovitch, how did that tweet make you feel?”

“I don’t know how to feel about anything anymore. Nothing makes sense. It didn’t make me happy, I’ll say that. The President accusing you of being a fork-thief does not feel good.”

“I apologize to you on behalf of the House of Representatives, ma’am.”

“Point of order!”

“Oh, stuff it, Congresswoman Stefanik!”

“Point of order! The entire House does NOT apologize.”

“You are not recognized.”

“In fact, I double-down on the tweet. I demand that the witness empty her purse. There’s knives in there.”

“Not recognized!”

EVERYONE IN THE ROOM’S CELL PHONE VIBRATING AT ONCE NOISE

“Ah, dammit. Okay, I’ll read this one, too. Ahem.

I will pardon anyone who murders Weird Al Yankovic.

“Jesus! Okay, we’re opening up a whole new file. That’s a new charge right there. That is criminal. Madame Ambassador, are you okay?”

“I am.”

“I assume he means you when he says ‘Weird Al Yankovic.'”

“Uh-huh. I assumed that, too.”

“”CHAIRMAN SCHIFF! I WILL HAVE THE FLOOR!”

“C’mon, Jordan, you’ve behaved until now.”

“Recognize my masculine power.”

“I will not.”

“Check out my traps. I’ve been killing my traps.”

“The gentleman’s traps are not recognized.”

“You will allow me to throw a sandwich at the witness.”

“The gentleman will suspend.”

“You will allow me to heave a meatball sub at the ambassador.”

“The gentleman will suspend.”

“That’s what liars get in this dojo.”

“We are not in a dojo, Congressman Jordan.”

“The world is my dojo.”

“Stop talking. You are not recognized.

EVERYONE IN THE ROOM’S CELL PHONE VIBRATING AT ONCE NOISE

“Jesus. I’m not gonna keep reading these.”

Jordan, I’ll give you a thousand dollars to pop Liddle Adam Schiff in his big nose. Cash!

“Okay, we’re taking a break!”

A Partial Transcript Of The Impeachment Hearings, 11/13/19

HOUSE HEARING ROOM – MORNING

“Order, please. Come to order. This morning, the House of Representatives begins the public phase of its impeachment inquiries into President Donald Trump, which means everyone will be watching. Let us not sully this august chamber with our usual frattish theatrics and petty outbursts.”

“Chairman Schiff, I make a motion that you call all this off, then apologize to President Trump for being such a ballsack.”

“That’s the kind of crap I was talking about, Congressman Jordan. Stop it. And why aren’t you wearing a jacket?”

“Got too swole.”

“Whatever, just shut up. Impeachment is not undertaken lightly. This is only the fourth time in our nation’s history. Mostly with President Trump, it’s the first time. A lot of first times with this guy. First time a President ever got up at dawn and publicly argued with the teevee every single deathless day. First time a White House aide got caught palling around with Nazis and didn’t get fired immediately. Remember when he got in a fight with the National Weather Service about where the hurricane was gonna go and then redrew a map with a Sharpie to prove he was right? First time for that bullshit. But impeachment? Four times prior.

“As we have already heard in previous hearings, and what will be confirmed by today’s testimony, is that the President of the United States withheld military aid to Ukraine in exchange for assistance with his upcoming reelection campaign. His actions raised red flags with numerous diplomats, bureaucrats, and members of the Intelligence Community, and all of them took notes on everything. In a sane world, this is the slam-dunkiest impeachment you’ve ever seen, but apparently we live in Thunderdome now.

“Our witness today is the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor. Thank you for being here, ambassador.”

“America called and I answered, Chairman Schiff.”

“Ambassador, you’ve already testified about the scheduled phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky, but you say you have information about a second call that you also found distressing?”

“Yes. On July 26th of this year, I was notified of a call between the President and EU ambassador Sondland that I was alarmed by.”

“The content of the call alarmed you?”

“The content. The manner in which it was made. The cavalier attitude towards security. All of it. Just absolutely all of it.”

“Go on.”

“I became aware of the call because it took place at a restaurant in Kyiv. Ambassador Sondland had the President on speaker and the whole dining room was listening. A member of my staff happened to be having dinner two tables over.”

“That sounds like a breach in protocol.”

“Not a breach, no. More like an obliteration of the concept. You should understand the restaurant I’m talking about here. It’s the one in the Four Seasons where all the international businessmen and diplomats hang out. The place is lousy with spies. We believe the Russians found out about the call soon thereafter. They might have actually heard it in real-time.”

“Uh-huh. And what was the substance of the call?”

“It regarded the conditions that had been placed on the release of the aid. Specifically, the President wanted Ambassador Sondland to get Ukrainian President Zelensky to make ‘the most perfect speech that’s gonna be so beautiful and perfect’ and sentence Hunter Biden to death.”

“Pardon me?”

“Having the Ukrainians execute Hunter Biden was on and off the table throughout this ordeal. The idea was always floating around.”

“Wow. I will now yield the floor to my distinguished colleague, the ranking member. Congressman Nunes?”

“I demand you set yourself on fire!”

“No.”

“I demand I be allowed to hit the witness with a stick.”

“No.”

“SHAM! This is all a sham. I call these proceeding ‘Sam,’ because they are a sham. And they are wooly-bully. This whole fraud is a wooly-bully sham, and Jefferson sleeps uneasy tonight in the Memorial.”

“Jefferson isn’t buried in the Memorial, dummy.”

“LIAR! Jefferson is buried within all of our hearts!”

“Jesus.”

“Ambassador Taylor, I have many questions and I’m also gonna bellow incoherently at you a little.”

“I welcome them, Congressman Nunes.”

“In reference to this phone call you say you heard–”

“I didn’t say I heard it.”

“–did you really hear it?”

“No.”

“So you didn’t.”

“No, not personally.”

“Ipso facto. That’s your ipso facto right there. Democrats have been yelling about quid pro quo, but now we got an ipso facto. Everyone’s speaking Latin here. Ambassador Taylor, is it true that you once shoved a harmonica up a Chinese man’s ass, then made him fart out My Old Kentucky Home?”

“God, no.”

“Tell us the whistleblower’s name.”

“I don’t know it, Congressman.”

“Sir, why do you accuse the President of not caring about corruption in Ukraine? President Trump has led one of the cleanest and most transparent administrations in the history of this country, and he wants to spread that around the world.”

“That was not what was happening here. There are official channels through which nations can collaborate in fighting the scourge of corruption. None of what was happening was taking place anywhere near those official channels.”

“I hereby ask the Chairman to force the ambassador’s pants down and let me throw balogna at his ass.”

“Stop it.”

“Salami and various cheeses.”

“Nunes! Stop being crazy. I will now turn the proceedings over to–”

MENTALLY-STUNTED BALD TEXAN ENTERING THE CHAMBER NOISE

“IT’S LOUIE TIME!”

“Gohmert, get the hell out of here!”

“No, Congressman Jewish! I demand you stop this! It is bad! I have bombs!”

MORON THROWING HIS COAT OPEN TO REVEAL DEFLATED BALLOONS TAPED TO HIS CHEST NOISE

“Jesus, Gohmert. You all right?”

“I like Trump.”

“Okay. We’re gonna take five minutes and I’m gonna have a little chat with my colleagues across the aisle.”

GAVEL NOISE