Congressman Scalise, if Gordon Sondland, who met with the president a half dozen times
this summer, testifies this Wednesday, “Yup, the president said to me, ‘we’re not releasing
the aid until they announcement they’re gonna investigate the Bidens and Burisma,’”
doesn’t that blow a hole in the president’s defense?
Well the president’s defense is that those things didn’t happen.
And it’s not just the president’s word—President Zelensky himself said the aid wasn’t conditioned
and there was no pressure.
And then because of some of these innuendos that you’re talking about, the Foreign Minister
of Ukraine just a few days ago released another statement saying that there was never a link
between aid and investigations.
And once again, there were only two people that participated in that phone call.
It was Donald Trump and president Zelensky.
Both of them were very happy with the phone call.
Zelensky said there was no pressure— But, sir, I have to ask--
and the real bottom line is he got the money, Ukraine got the money, Chris.
Well, first of all, a dozen people listened in on the phone call and a number of them
were immediately upset because what the president said about Burisma—
Well, those were Schiff’s witnesses— No, sir.
They’re career Foreign Service officers, and these are people that worked in the Trump
administration.
They’re Schiff’s witnesses.
There are other witnesses-- You had a woman yesterday—
Wait a minute.
Sir, you had a woman yesterday who was on Vice President Pence’s staff who said it
was inappropriate.
You had Tim Morrison who was on the NSC staff, who said that alarm bells immediately went
off for him.
Alexander Vindman immediately went to see— these are all people, you say they were Schiff’s
witnesses, but they all were working in the Trump administration.
But let me get back to my— They were not all Trump administration folks.
Are you saying that the person working—Alexander Vindman wasn’t part of the Trump National
Security Council?
The inspector general said that the whistleblower had political motivations—
We’re not talking about the whistleblower— We had some serious concerns about that--
We’re not talking about the whistleblower.
We’re talking about Tim Morrison and we’re talking about the Trump—
You’ve seen our list of who we’ve asked to testify—
But I’m asking you about these people that worked in the Trump administration.
This is Fox News’ Chris Wallace systematically debunking Steve Scalise’s breathless defenses
of Trump as more and more witnesses testify and the evidence against the president continues
to pile up.
Right off the bat, Scalise says that Trump’s defense is that NONE of the things that the
spate of nonpartisan, Trump-appointed diplomats testified to ACTUALLY happened.
In other words, if and when Gordon Sondland – who only got his job because he donation
a MILLION DOLLARS to Trump’s inauguration – testifies that he was following Trump’s
orders to secure the promise of an announcement of an investigation into Joe Biden before
the aid is released, that’s he’s lying.
That he’s committing perjury and risking prison all to take down Trump.
The guy who HE donated a million dollars to.
Yup, makes total sense.
Scalise then dives into another GOP defense, saying that the two people at the center of
the call didn’t sense any pressure.
One, of course, was Donald Trump, who would tell you that he never met Don Jr. if it ever
meant he could save himself, and the other was Zelensky.
And notwithstanding the hostage situation that Zelensky was in by was sitting NEXT to
Trump when asked if there was any pressure, the simple fact is that Zelensky’s feelings
don’t dictate the legal facts surrounding this case, that aid was withheld while Trump
and his team knowingly lobbied for the announcement of an investigation into Joe Biden.
Think about it this way-- sometimes, two people in an abusive relationship don’t think they’re
in an abusive relationship—just because THEY can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t
happening.
By the way, it really doesn’t help Trump’s case that countless OTHER officials that have
testified for House investigators have already said that this was unacceptable.
The VERY NEXT public deposition is Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, who was ON THE CALL between
Trump and Ukrainian president Zelensky, and twice raised objections about what he’d
heard.
After that is Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the National Security Council,
ALSO on the call with Trump and Zelensky, who told investigators that the release of
the aid was conditioned on announcing a probe into Biden.
And then Wednesday is Gordon Sondland himself, who already told the House Intel Committee
that he told a top Ukrainian official that they would have to make an announcement of
an investigation before the military aid would be released.
In fact, just TODAY, Trump attacked Mike Pence’s adviser Jennifer Williams, who also listened
to July 25th call and testified that she found the request that the Ukrainians investigate
the Bidens "unusual and inappropriate” and relevant to Trump's "personal political agenda...as
opposed to a broader foreign policy objective" of the United States.
So I get that the guy who perpetuated the crime doesn’t think that any crime has been
committed, and that that’s very convenient, but it doesn’t seem like any of the other
people who were involved share his casual interpretation of the law.
But hands down, the worse excuse of all is that the people being called to testify aren’t
trustworthy because they’re quote “Schiff’s witnesses.”
Those aren’t Schiff’s witnesses, they’re lifelong, nonpartisan public officials and
Foreign Service officers and U.S. diplomats.
They are Trump administration officials.
They swore an oath and are testifying the truth under penalty of perjury.
Scalise and the GOP are trying desperately to create this false equivalency, wherein
those who have testified and are going to testify are all Democrats and those who Republicans
requested to prop up their BS conspiracy theories, including calling Hunter Biden, are somehow
the same.
They’re not.
Those who the House Intelligence Committee has called to testify are testifying because
their accounts are pertinent to the investigation at hand and they’re credible.
And you know that Chris Wallace was on the right track because shortly after this interview
aired, Trump took to Twitter, writing “Steve Scalese blew the nasty & obnoxious Chris Wallace
(will never be his father, Mike!) away on Chris’s lowest rated (unless I’m on) morning
show.
This kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the Fox News past.”
Clearly, Trump felt threatened by Wallace’s questioning because it risks exposing Fox’s
audience, which is otherwise pretty well insulated from the truth, to what actually happened,
and Trump can’t fathom what that would mean for him.
And so instead of pushing back on the substance of the interview, Trump opted instead to try
and attack Wallace personally.
But this is what Republicans do.
They attack the process, they attack the people, all because they can’t win on substance.
So Republicans in Congress will continue to contract their dignity to Trump by repeating
these tenuous talking points, but with even Fox News pushing back against their claims,
Trump’s coalition seems to be shrinking by the day.