The Wall Street Journal - 23.10.2019

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President Zelensky should

want to do this himself,” ac-

cording to the testimony.

Mr. Taylor said that con-

versation between the presi-

dent and Mr. Sondland was

described to him by Tim Mor-

rison, an official on the Na-

tional Security Council. Mr.

Morrison didn’t respond to a

request for comment.

Thenextday,accordingto

the testimony, Mr. Sondland

told Mr. Taylor that he had

spoken with the president and

that Mr. Trump was “adamant

that President Zelensky, him-

self, had to ‘clear things up

and do it in public.’”

Mr. Sondland said he had

spoken to Mr. Zelensky and his

aide Andriy Yermak and told

them that “although this was

not a quid pro quo, if Presi-

dent Zelensky did not ‘clear

things up’ in public, we would

be at a ‘stalemate.’ ” Mr. Tay-

lor said he understood a

“stalemate” to mean the U.S.

wouldn’t release the military

aid to Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky subsequently

agreed to make a public state-

ment in a CNN interview, Mr.

Sondland told Mr. Taylor, ac-

cording to his testimony. Mr.

Zelensky didn’t ultimately

make such a statement.

Days later, Mr. Taylor

learned the hold had been

lifted amid growing questions

on Capitol Hill over why the

aid had been held up. He gave

no indication in his prepared

remarks that he ever spoke to

Mr. Trump directly about the

Ukraine matter.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani

have contended, without pre-

senting evidence, that Mr. Bi-

den’s anticorruption push in

Ukraine while vice president

was designed to head off any

investigation of his son’s role

at Burisma Group. Both Bidens

have denied wrongdoing and

said they never discussed the

younger Mr. Biden’s business

in Ukraine.

Mr. Trump has also called

for Ukraine to investigate a

Democratic National Commit-

tee computer server that he

has claimed is now in Ukraine.

That call relates to an unsub-

stantiated theory that it was

Ukraine, not Russia, that

hacked Democratic networks

during the 2016 election, a

theory that contradicts find-

ble and were deeply troubled

by his testimony.

“It was real explosive testi-

mony—the No. 1 witness we’ve

heard from so far,” said Rep.

Adriano Espaillat (D., N.Y.).

Rep. Harley Rouda (D., Calif.)

said Mr. Taylor’s opening

statement produced “a lot of

sighs and gasps” in the hear-

ing room.

Republicans, meanwhile,

played down Mr. Taylor’s tes-

timony. “Nothing new here,”

said Rep. Mark Meadows (R.,

N.C.), a top ally of Mr. Trump

on Capitol Hill. He added that

he hadn’t seen any witness so

far suggest that there was a

quid pro quo involving U.S. aid

to Ukraine.

Mr. Taylor is the latest in a

series of diplomats and other

officials who have testified in

closed sessions before House

committees as part of the im-

peachment inquiry into inter-

actions between Mr. Trump,

Mr. Giuliani and Ukraine.

Mr. Taylor told House com-

mittees that his concern about

how the Trump administration

was conducting foreign policy

toward Ukraine began immedi-

ately upon his arrival there.

“There appeared to be two

channels of U.S. policy-making

and implementation, one regu-

lar and one highly irregular,”

he said.

The irregular channel, he

said, included Kurt Volker,

then the U.S. special envoy for

Ukraine negotiations; Mr.

Sondland; Energy Secretary

Rick Perry; and Mr. Giuliani.

That group, Mr. Taylor said,

operated largely outside of of-

ficial State Department chan-

nels but would sometimes

loop him in.

Mr. Taylor said his under-

standing of what leverage the

Trump administration was us-

ing to pressure Ukraine to un-

dertake investigations evolved

over the summer. Early on, he

understood that a White

House meeting between the

Ukraine president and Mr.

Trump was contingent on the

announcement of those inves-

tigations; he later understood

that the aid would be contin-

gent, too, he said.

In a June 18 call with

Messrs. Volker, Sondland and

Perry, and other officials, Mr.

Taylor said it was “clear” that

a meeting between the two

presidents was a shared goal.

—Jesse Naranjo

and Andrew Duehren

contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON—A tweet by

President Trump comparing the

U.S. House’s impeachment in-

quiry to a lynching became the

latest test for Republicans, as

GOP lawmakers seeking to criti-

cize Democrats over the probe

instead found themselves again

on the defensive because of the

president’s rhetoric.

“All Republicans must re-

member what they are witness-

inghere-alynching,” Mr.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday

morning. “But we will WIN!”

More than 4,000 African-

Americans were lynched in

Southern states between 1877

and 1950, according to the

Equal Justice Initiative, a non-

profit that recognizes the vic-

tims of such extrajudicial kill-

ings. The crimes were often

done as a public spectacle to

traumatize black people, the

group says, and those killed of-

ten weren’t guilty of any crime.

Democrats condemned the

president’s remark. “It’s horri-

ble, it’s shameful,” said Sen.

Doug Jones (D., Ala). “I want

him to come down to Mont-

gomery, Alabama, to see the

lynching memorial to see what

that really means to people.”

Many Republicans also ques-

tioned the use of the word.

Speaking at his weekly news

conference with Senate GOP

leaders, Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said:

“Given the history in our coun-

try, I would not compare this to

lynching.” He added, “That was

an unfortunate choice of words.

It is an unfair process.”

“That’s not the language I

would use,” said House Minor-

ity Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.,

Calif.), a staunch defender of

the president.

Other Republicans ducked

the question. Sen. Mike Rounds

of South Dakota said he hadn’t

seen the president’s tweet.

Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and

David Perdue of Georgia de-

clined to comment.

White House spokesman Ho-

gan Gidley said lynching was

one of “many words to describe

the way he has been treated.”

He added: “The president is not

comparing what’s happened to

him with one of the darkest

moments in American history.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.,

S.C.), a Trump ally, was one of

the few Republicans to approve

the use of the term. “If we, as

Republicans, took a Democratic

president and did this to them,

you would not be so offended

by the word,” Mr. Graham told

reporters when asked to explain

what he meant when he called

the impeachment inquiry a

lynching “in every sense.”

Meanwhile, former Vice

President Joe Biden apologized

Tuesday night for saying in a

CNN interview in 1998 that

then-President Bill Clinton’s im-

peachment could be seen as a

“partisan lynching.”

“This wasn’t the right word

to use and I’m sorry about

that,” Mr. Biden wrote on

Twitter. “Trump on the other

hand chose his words deliber-

ately today in his use of the

word lynching and continues

to stoke racial divides in this

country daily.”

—Siobhan Hughes

and Michael C. Bender

contributed to this article.

BYLINDSAYWISE

ANDNATALIEANDREWS

Trump

‘Lynching’

Twe e t Is

Criticized

has said the ACA should be in-

validated by the courts by

largely backing a lawsuit from

18 Republican-led states to end

the law. Its continued stabiliza-

tion could increase criticism of

the administration’s stance.

in 2018. Thirty-nine states

used the federal exchange,

healthcare.gov, in 2019.

The health law, which was

signed in 2010, set up market-

places, or exchanges, where

people can purchase coverage

if they don’t get it through

their employer or another fed-

eral program. Most people

who buy on the ACA ex-

changes also get subsidies that

help offset premium costs.

Premiums climbed rapidly in

the law’s early years, with

benchmark rates rising 37% be-

tween 2017 and 2018, in part

because insurers initially un-

derpriced plans and lost money

when people were sicker than

expected. The drop in rates for

2020 could boost sign-ups

when open enrollment for ACA

plans begins Nov. 1—and could

have political ramifications.

The Trump administration

It is also a challenge for

Democrats who assert that the

White House and Republicans

are sabotaging the law.

Six states will see double-

digit percentage declines in

average premiums for the

most popular ACA plans on

the federal exchange for 27-

year-olds.

Delaware premiums will drop

20%, for example, and Nebraska

premiums will drop 15%, ac-

cording to the Centers for Medi-

care and Medicaid Services.

Overall, the average bench-

mark premium for an unsubsi-

dized 27-year-old will drop to

$388 a month in 2020 from

$406 in 2019. The average

maximum subsidy amount for a

27-year-old who meets eligible

criteria in 2020 will be $323.

For a family of four, the av-

erage benchmark premium will

go to $1,520 a month from

$1,591. If the family gets the

average maximum subsidy

amount next year, it could pay

$445 a month. There also are

premium options with lower

and higher prices.

Some actions by Republi-

cans and the Trump adminis-

tration have put upward pres-

sure on premiums. Insurers

blamed some rate increases on

congressional Republicans’ de-

cision to end the ACA’s pen-

alty for not having insurance.

Insurers also have said they

raised premiums because Presi-

dent Trump in 2017 ended bil-

lions of dollars in payment to

offset the cost of providing

certain subsidies to consumers.

The administration in 2018

also sharply cut funding for

outreach programs. Support-

ers of the ACA say premium

drops would be even greater

without those initiatives.

But administration actions

also have been cheered by

some insurers, employers and

states, including its approval

of waivers under the ACA that

let states lower premiums

through reinsurance programs.

Reinsurance provides money to

insurers who cover people

with expensive health condi-

tions so the costs aren’t passed

on in the form of higher rates

for other consumers.

Enrollment on the exchanges

has fallen short of initial expec-

tations. When the ACA passed,

the nonpartisan Congressional

Budget Office had projected 21

million people would gain cov-

erage through the exchanges by

2016. About 10.6 million people
      had paid-up coverage in the
      first quarter of 2019, a roughly
      5% decline from early 2018, ac-
      cording to the Kaiser Family
      Foundation.

Premiums for the most pop-
ular health plans sold under
the Affordable Care Act will
drop for the second consecu-
tive year, the Trump adminis-
tration said, as the law enters
its 10th year and shows in-
creasing signs of stabilizing.
Average rates for the most
popular, middle-priced plan will
fall 4% in 2020 for a 27-year-
old buying health insurance on
the federal exchange, though
premiums will vary widely by
location, federal health officials
said Tuesday. Rates had also
declined 1.5% in 2019, after
years of double-digit-percent-
age premium increases.
Additionally, 20 more insur-
ance providers will participate
in states that use the federal
exchange, bringing the total to
175 issuers compared with 132

BYSTEPHANIEARMOUR

ACA Health-Plan Premiums Are Set to Drop

2016 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’

0

100

200

300

400

$

Averagebenchmarkplan

monthlypremiumcostfora

27-year-oldonthefederal

exchange

Note: Most people on the exchanges get

subsidies that lower these costs further.

Source: Health and Human Services

Bill Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, arrives at the Capitol on Tuesday to testify before House committees.

dential election.
According to Mr. Taylor’s
testimony, a copy of which
wasreviewedbyTheWall
Street Journal, Mr. Sondland
told him that “‘everything’
was dependent on such an an-
nouncement”—both a White
House meeting, which Mr. Zel-
ensky had sought for months,
and the release of the aid. “He
said that President Trump
wanted President Zelensky ‘in
a public box’ by making a pub-
lic statement about ordering
such investigations,” Mr. Tay-
lor told House committees in a
closed session, according to
the testimony.
“Ambassador Sondland
tried to explain to me that
President Trump is a business-
man,” Mr. Taylor said in his
testimony. “When a business-
man is about to sign a check to
someone who owes him some-
thing, he said, the business-
man asks that person to pay
up before signing a check.”
Mr. Taylor’s testimony gets
to the heart of the impeach-
ment inquiry, which is probing
whether the president abused
the power of his office to pres-
sure a foreign leader to under-
take investigations that could
benefit Mr. Trump’s re-elec-
tion bid.
The 15-page opening state-
ment, which Democratic law-
makers said was based on Mr.
Taylor’s contemporaneous
notes, provided the most de-
tailed account to date of alleged
interactions among the presi-
dent, U.S. diplomats and Ukrai-
nian officials concerning the in-
vestigations Mr. Trump wanted
Ukraine to undertake and the
aid he had ordered held up.
White House press secre-
tary Stephanie Grisham said in
a statement: “President Trump
has done nothing wrong—this
is a coordinated smear cam-
paign from far-left lawmakers
and radical unelected bureau-
crats waging war on the Con-
stitution. There was no quid
pro quo.”
Mr. Giuliani has defended
his efforts in Ukraine and said
he worked in conjunction with
the State Department. A law-
yer for Mr. Sondland declined
to comment.
Mr. Trump has defended his
actions regarding Ukraine as
“perfect” and has called the
inquiry a “hoax.” He has re-
peatedly denied that aid for
Ukraine was contingent on
Kyiv opening new probes.
Last week, White House
acting chief of staff Mick Mul-
vaney said that Mr. Trump
wanted Ukraine to open a new
investigation related to the
2016 election, among other
demands, in return for the aid.
Mr. Mulvaney later reversed
himself and said that wasn’t
the case.
According to Mr. Taylor’s
statement, Mr. Trump repeat-
edly told officials that he
wasn’t seeking a “quid pro
quo”—but effectively laid out
a trade between the aid and
the investigations. In a con-
versation with Mr. Sondland
on Sept. 7, in which Mr. Sond-
land asked him whether there
was a quid pro quo between
the two issues, Mr. Trump de-
nied the existence of one—but
“did insist that President Zel-
ensky go to a microphone and
say he is opening investiga-
tions of Biden and 2016 elec-
tion interference, and that

ContinuedfromPageOne

Diplomat

Says Aid,

Probe Tied

White House, Allies

Look to Coordinate

President Trump has signed

off on regular conference calls

between senior White House

aides and select Republican law-

makers to coordinate messaging

and legal strategies on the

House impeachment probe, one

of the few proactive measures

undertaken so far by West Wing

officials who have been unwilling

to cooperate in the investigation.

The weekday calls started

recently as a response to criti-

cism from conservative allies

that the White House was leav-

ing them out of the loop, accord-

ing to White House officials fa-

miliar with the calls. But from

the White House perspective,

there has been little to be

looped into.

Since House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi (D., Calif.) announced the

impeachment inquiry on

Sept. 24, the White House has

struggled to settle on a strategy

to counter the investigation or

to reframe the debate on its

terms.

The White House didn’t

mark its own battle lines for the

probe until Oct. 8, when the ad-

ministration released an eight-

page letter that stipulated it

wouldn’t engage with the inquiry

into Mr. Trump for pressuring

Ukraine to investigate his politi-

cal rivals.

The push for the calls was

initiated by conservative House

Freedom Caucus members, un-

happy they weren’t clued in to

the White House thinking and

concerned there wasn’t a strat-

egy for how Republican lawmak-

ers should approach depositions

during the investigation, said a

House Republican aide.

A breaking point came when

House Republicans were sur-

prised by the White House

blocking Gordon Sondland, the

ambassador to the European

Union, from testifying earlier this

month. They found out by read-

ing headlines that morning, the

aide said. Mr. Sondland eventu-

ally did testify after Democrats

subpoenaed him.

The White House hasn’t

added any additional staff to

handle the impeachment inquiry,

which means responsibilities are

being handled by existing staff

in a West Wing marked by his-

toric turnover and constantly un-

filled positions. The small group

in charge of overseeing the

White House response includes

senior adviser and Trump son-in-

law Jared Kushner, acting chief

of staff Mick Mulvaney, White

House counsel Pat Cipollone and

Stephanie Grisham, the press

secretary and communications

director, White House officials

said.

In a signal that communica-

tion remains imperfect between

the White House and Senate

Majority Leader Mitch McCon-

nell, the Kentucky Republican on

Tuesday disputed an assertion

from Mr. Trump that he told the

president he was fine with his

July phone call with the Ukraine

president that is now at the

center of the impeachment in-

quiry. Mr. Trump said on Oct. 3

that Mr. McConnell, after having

read a transcript, told him it was

“the most innocent phone call

that I’ve ever read.”

But at his Tuesday weekly

news conference, Mr. McConnell

said, “I don’t recall any conversa-

tions with the president about

that phone call.”

A White House spokesman

didn’t respond to a request for

comment.

—Michael C. Bender

and Natalie Andrews

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

ings by U.S. intelligence agen-

cies and former special coun-

sel Robert Mueller. There is no

evidence to support the claim

that any Democratic server

wound up in Ukraine.

Mr. Taylor’s testimony was

of particular interest to the

House committees because

previously released text mes-

sages showed he had raised

concerns with other U.S. diplo-

mats over a possible quid pro

quo. In his testimony, refer-

ring to a text message in

which he said it would be

“crazy” to hold up aid to a

country in exchange for help

with a political campaign, Mr.

Taylor said: “I believed that

then, and I still believe that.”

Democratic lawmakers who

listened to Mr. Taylor on Tues-

day said they found him credi-

The testimony gets

to the heart of the

impeachment

inquiry.