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babylonsister

(171,031 posts) Wed Nov 20, 2019, 06:27 PM Nov 2019

David Corn: Donald Trump's No-Quid-Pro-Quo Defense Is Crushed. The GOP Didn't Get the Memo.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/donald-trumps-no-quid-pro-quo-defense-is-crushed-the-gop-didnt-get-the-memo/

Donald Trump’s No-Quid-Pro-Quo Defense Is Crushed. The GOP Didn’t Get the Memo.
Gordon Sondland’s dramatic testimony bolsters the Democrats’ case for impeachment.
David Corn

What do you do when your whole world falls apart? That is, what do you do when you say there was no quid pro quo, but a credible witness declares there was?

That was the bombshell testimony delivered by Gordon Sondland, the Republican hotelier who earned himself a US ambassadorship by donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee. In a dramatic appearance before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Sondland made it clear that Trump had set up a pay-to-play-ish foreign policy operation. It’s not complicated: When Sondland and other US officials encouraged Trump to work with the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump expressed contempt for Ukrainians and said, “Talk to Rudy.” When they talked to Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer, Giuliani told them that before the Ukrainians could get a much-desired phone call and sit-down with Trump, Kyiv had to announce the opening of political investigations that Trump wanted. And Sondland and his colleagues, trying to salvage the US-Ukraine relationship, then spent months working with the Ukrainians to try to make this deal happen.

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The Republicans just could not bring themselves to accept reality. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) declared that the hearing was based on “speculation, presumption, and opinion.” He noted that Sondland had no evidence that Trump blocked the security assistance to pressure Zelensky. (Sondland testified that his direct knowledge of a quid pro quo related only to that possible White House visit for Zelensky.) Jordan did not repeat his no-linkages mantra. Perhaps that would be a denial too far. But he reprised another favorite refrain: The military aid was eventually released, so there was no quid pro quo. Jordan did not mention that the assistance was released after the White House learned of the whistleblower’s complaint and Congress began an investigation. “Yes, they got caught,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said at the hearing in response to Jordan.

Overall, the Republican effort was sad. True, Trump, Fox News, and other conservative media highlighted Sondland’s testimony that he had received no direct quid-pro-quo order from Trump. But one key feature of this scandal is that Sondland did not have to receive such instruction from the guy at the top. Trump had set up a situation in which he did not need to explicitly command his underlings to squeeze the Ukrainians. That was Giuliani’s job. The Republicans may be inching toward a throw-Rudy-under-the-bus position. But before they arrive there, they are kicking up the-Ukrainians-did-it dust, sticking with their absurd claims that Trump was motivated by a concern for corruption and the possible misuse of US assistance, obsessing over the whistleblower who started the Ukraine scandal, and insisting the real scandal is about the Bidens.

“I want to get back to the facts,” Nunes said after Sondland was questioned by the Democrats. The facts, though, are not on his side—or Trump’s. Sondland drew a damning big-picture portrait that corroborated what’s already known: Trump exploited his office in an attempt to gather political ammo that could influence the 2020 election and that could clear him of the Russia taint. During a break in the hearing, I asked Nunes, “What do you think so far? You said there was no quid pro quo. Sondland said there was.” Nunes glowered at me and said nothing.

Update: Shortly after I filed this story, Jordan walked past me in the committee room. “Do you still think there was no quid pro quo?” I asked. Without pause, he shot back: “No quid pro quo.” And he kept on walking.