More witnesses appeared at the impeachment hearings, including Fiona Hill: remarkably smart, wildly non-partisan and even-handed, and with an unimpeachable character. While many of hours of hearings have been focused on the investigation into the Bidens, there was also a potentially more damaging, conspiracy theory-based demand to investigate Ukraine’s imaginary hacking of our elections. Hill’s opening remarks, and many of her answers, focused on this point. “Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country—and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”

+ Those “Ukraine did it” talking points come directly from Putin. And he’s happy to see they’ve been adopted by the most powerful person in America. “Thank God no one is accusing us of interfering in the U.S. elections anymore; now they’re accusing Ukraine.”

+ A reality (or unreality) check: “There are two impeachment hearings unfolding in the nation’s capital. One, carried out by the Democrats, is designed to ascertain the truth as to whether Trump sought a “quid pro quo” deal with Ukraine to get the country to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 presidential election in exchange for aid money. The other, being carried out simultaneously by the Republicans, is quite different. Instead of trying to learn the truth, it seeks to create not just a counternarrative but a completely separate reality.” Buzzfeed: There Are Two Separate Impeachment Hearings Happening Right Now — And Republicans Are Winning Theirs. (Others who are winning include the Russian leader featured in the story above.)

+ Here’s the latest from the impeach pit from CNN and WaPo. (Sidenote: From today on, I only have one rule for audiobooks. I’ll only listen to one if Fiona Hill reads it.)