GOP Debate Recap, Biden Impeachment Hearing, Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

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president.

Welcome to the second Republican debate of the 2024 primary, live from the Ronald Reagan

Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Frontrunner Donald Trump didn't show, and one candidate called him Donald Duck.

Other candidates contended with each other to deliver one-liners.

Danielle, good morning.

So thank you.

Thank you.

What was it like?

There was a lot of crosstalk.

There were multiple instances of that as seven candidates tried to be heard over each other.

And for those who are listening who didn't watch, there are some moments that you will

hear about that seem destined to become memes or gifs.

Here's one.

This is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley taking aim at businessman Vivek Ramaswamy

after he explained that he joined TikTok as a way to reach younger voters.

what you say.

night there.

But still, for all of the yelling, for all of the bickering, I don't think you could

say that there was one candidate who made a clear case for why they should be the president

over someone else.

I'm not sure how much clarity was gained.

person, Donald Trump.

How did his absence become a presence, so to speak?

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was one candidate who took aim.

Here he is.

He said that Trump was afraid, that's his word, to be on the stage and defend his record,

really clearly trying to goad the former president using language that he thinks will get at

Yeah, looking at the camera, I guess, and saying, Donald, I know you're watching, and

then attempting to mock him, essentially doing what Christie would have liked to do with

Trump there on stage.

But I want to get back to that question of policy.

These are seven candidates plus one absent candidate who are saying they want to be president

for four years, which means they could do an awful lot to or with the United States.

Did you get any, did the moderators guide them toward any particular policy differences?

Did you hear any particular policy differences?

Covering them, do you have a sense of any policy differences?

But honestly, in the end, among those seven who were on stage, you got the sense that,

yes, of course, they all want to tighten up the southern border.

They are all opposed to abortion rights.

But any number of other areas, they were all in roughly the same ballpark.

But you didn't get the sense that there were a lot of gaps in between them.

And some of them took aim at Donald Trump, for example, for his recent squishiness on

abortion, for his spending as president.

But no, there wasn't a lot of substance that really came out of it.

Thanks for the facts.

Appreciate it.

to keep it open.

The Republican-led committee will hold its first public hearing on an impeachment inquiry

into President Biden.

Here's House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer talking to NPR.

But so far, we haven't seen exactly what those actions have to do with the president who

would be the one impeached.

Claudia, good morning.

hearing, but of course, focused on President Biden.

The panel has close to 50 members who will be asking questions.

So this could be a very long day.

Some estimates are seven hours.

Now we're going to see three Republican committee chairs lead the hearing.

James Comer, who you just heard there, who leads oversight, as well as the chairman of

House Judiciary, that's Jim Jordan, and Jason Smith, who leads the Ways and Means Committee,

which focuses on tax issues.

They'll split about 10 minutes in opening remarks.

And then for the Democrats, the top ranking member, Jamie Raskin, who led the impeachment

against former President Trump, his second impeachment, will respond to their claims.

It's been a little harder to connect his actions directly to the president.

Could today be any different?

A lot of this focus is focused on Hunter Biden and his business dealings, and as we know,

he's battling his own criminal case.

But Republicans are going to be looking a lot today at payments that were made to Hunter,

as well as IRS tax records backing that up, and two IRS whistleblowers tied to these allegations.

But again, we haven't seen backup documents that connect that to President Biden.

the president who they would impeach, Republicans often say, no, wait, wait, you're not paying attention.

We have tons of evidence.

So they do respond that way.

I did ask Chairman Comer that exactly, and he said that's why today is largely going

to be a rehashing of evidence of claims they've made in recent months.

He says the media has been getting it wrong, so they're going to be revisiting all of that.

Now, Republicans are claiming that Hunter exploited the Biden name in his business dealings

with associates.

That's going to be part of that central argument, saying that there were ties to foreign associates

from China, for example, and that President Biden knew about this before his presidency,

and he was tied to these payments.

But Republicans have failed to connect those dots, and Democrats will argue that.

And they're saying this is a big distraction from dealing with the shutdown threats.

I talked to Raskin about this.

to any criminal culpability on the part of Joe Biden.

Okay, so I just want to follow up on this.

You said that you asked James Comer, one of the co-chairs, what evidence, do you have

any evidence, where's your evidence?

And he said, we're going to work on it, we're going to rehash all the evidence today.

So who are today's witnesses, and do they have any direct evidence of anything?

these are largely subject matter witnesses.

For example, for the Republicans, one of them is a familiar name, George Washington University

law professor Jonathan Turley.

He's appeared on various media outlets, and he's often defended President Trump.

And so this is largely the focus today, is subject matter experts.

us on NPR.

But just to be clear again, he's not a direct witness of any activity of any kind, right?

Right.

Claudia, thanks so much.

And exodus continues from a self-proclaimed republic in Azerbaijan.

country, which is by the Caspian Sea.

More than 68,000 people, roughly half the population, have fled.

They are ethnic Armenians and they are fleeing a place they consider their homeland.

Some are moving toward the nearby country of Armenia.

It stretches back into the past century, in fact.

Philip, welcome.

for the last four days in cars, buses, even garbage trucks and tractors.

A few days ago, a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh exploded, killing more than 60 people.

And that's created a shortage of gas.

So some people are just walking.

They're bringing their farm animals, chickens, goats and so on.

Now, this is usually by car, a journey of five or six hours, but the road's been jammed.

And so it's taking far longer than that.

And these people, Steve, are leaving their lives behind.

They've abandoned their villages in the mountains, their homes, their towns, and there's really

they see no prospect of returning.

Morning Edition just yesterday.

It was described as a single road going westward to Armenia, goes through the mountains.

This has got to be an arduous journey, especially for those who, as you said, are on foot.

It is tough.

And they've been blockaded by Azerbaijan for months before now.

And so many of them have had to live on what they could grow in their own homes and gardens

and so on.

And so, you know, they're not in great condition for that reason also.

People are in fear of the Azerbaijani troops, apparently.

Is there evidence that they need to be?

Is the government in any way assuring people's safety?

Are they endangering people's safety?

off and on since shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union.

They fought several wars.

There have been atrocities on both sides.

And so Armenians are worried about their safety.

They're traumatized.

When the Azerbaijan military seized control the other day, it was very quick, but we're

hearing there was bombing, there was fighting, people got hurt.

And I think, yeah, there are assurances from Azerbaijan that their rights will be respected.

But, you know, they don't trust those.

Azerbaijan says it wants to reintegrate them into their society.

But the ethnic Armenians don't speak their language.

They're Christians, whereas Azerbaijan is a Muslim-majority country.

One of the big concerns among ethnic Armenians is that their ancient Christian and cultural

heritage will now be lost to them.

And they're worried about reprisals, Steve.

Azerbaijan's detained one of their most prominent people.

He's been accused, according to reports I'm seeing, of illegal residence in Azerbaijan

because officially it's part of...Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.

And that's another reason for concern among the residents that remain.

Thanks for your insights, Philip.

I'm Steve Inskee.

And today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Megan Pratt, Michael Sullivan,

and H.J. Mai.

It was produced by Sheldon Hawkins, Leanne Bunch, and Katie Klein.

We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.

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