This is my favorite day

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Coming into today, seven different witnesses had publicly testified against Donald Trump in televised impeachment hearings. Each had been more damaging to Trump than the last. But we’ve been waiting for that one witness to publicly testify who was close enough to the Ukraine extortion scandal to truly take a blowtorch to everyone involved.

On Monday, I wrote that Gordon Sondland was “the one House impeachment witness who may be even more devastating than John Bolton.” I didn’t know how right I was. Sondland was clearly coming into today’s hearing under great pressure to come clean, as it was his only hope of avoiding a perjury charge. Sondland was a wildcard, but I had a feeling he’d sell Trump out. I just didn’t think he would take it this far.

Go big or go home, the old saying goes. Gordon Sondland has decided to go big. He’s fully selling out Donald Trump. He’s selling out Mike Pence. He’s selling out Mike Pompeo, Rudy Giuliani, and pretty much everyone involved. And because Sondland was at the center of the Ukraine extortion plot, he’s in prime position to sell these people out. Trump and his allies said they wanted a first-hand witness. This can’t have been what they were hoping for.

This is my favorite day. It’s the one I’ve been waiting for. Gordon Sondland is on live national television right now, going full John Dean for all to see. Sondland may be no John Dean in terms of character. But it was going to take someone with their hands dirty, someone who was as deep into Trump’s corruption schemes as Sondland was, to take Trump down.