CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin identified the biggest problem with both witnesses on the opening day of the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry on Wednesday.
Toobin said most of the testimony related to facts which had been known previously, but there was one very important new development.
He explained that one of Ambassador William Taylor's aides will testify about a phone call he overheard between Ambassador Sondland and President Donald Trump about Ukraine, after which Sondland explained the intention of the president.
"The president cares more about investigations of Biden of the 2016 campaign than he does about anything else relating to Ukraine," Toobin paraphrased a quote from the hearing.
"That's important, because the one criticism of these two witnesses, which I think is very much legitimate, it's not really a criticism, it's just a factual statement, is that neither of them had direct contact with the president," he explained.
"Ever!" interjected Jake Tapper.
"Ever," Toobin agreed.
"You know, that's a problem if you're going to impeach the president," he added.
Toobin made the comments in order to explain the importance of the upcoming testimony of the aide to Amb. Taylor for the Democrats.
Republican allies of the president have argued in his defense that it was reasonable for Trump to ask for a foreign government to look into possible corruption related to Hunter Biden.
The president has decried the proceedings as a "witch hunt," and denied any wrongdoing.
Here's the video of Toobin's comments:
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin: Impeachment witnesses not having contact with Trump is 'a problem'www.youtube.com