Try not to get dizzy: Trump makes four different arguments about his Ukraine call in 74 words

[babylonsister]

Try not to get dizzy: Trump makes four different arguments about his Ukraine call in 74 words
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Updated 9:01 AM EST, Mon November 04, 2019


Washington(CNN) President Donald Trump's defenses of his actions often change over time. They rarely change quite as head-spinningly fast as they did on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump continued to argue that his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect." He claimed that the "many people" who listened to the call did not have a problem with it.

Then he made a flurry of very different arguments -- over the course of 74 total words. His claims in the second half of the paragraph contradicted his claims in the first.

Breaking down Trump's comments

Here is the paragraph as it appears in the official White House transcript:

"And all of those many people that listened to the phone call, why didn't they have a problem with it? Because they didn't have -- many people listen to calls between -- I know that. For instance, the Secretary of State, Pompeo, was on the call. Nobody had -- with all of those people, very few people, that I know, came forward. And they only came forward when you asked. And some of them are Never Trumpers."

Got that?

Let's break it down claim by claim.

1) The many people who listened to the call didn't have a problem with it. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn't have a problem. Nobody.

2) Very few people Trump knows came forward to raise concerns about the call.

3) The people who raised concerns about the call only did so after they were asked.

4) Some of the people who raised concerns about the call are "Never Trumpers."

In summary: Trump went from

A) claiming universal support for his actions from those who were on the call to

B) acknowledging people complained about his actions to

C) suggesting those people were prodded into complaining to

D) alleging that those people harbor animosity toward him.

He can be a challenge to paraphrase. So let's dig in:

A fact check

more...

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/04/politics/fact-check-trump-four-different-arguments-ukraine-74-words/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3MwGhUSGtXr4_qAdISsCh9TRGl3sqA_3v3_8kLvx5UJg5hgx3y9pPiu1s