I was listening to the impeachment hearings live broadcast today to get an update about the kind of defense Republicans are running. At various times, they've floated different way to defend Trump, including Nick Mulvaney's, "It's not a crime, we do it all the time" and Laura Ingraham's, "Attempted crimes aren't crimes." But Republicans' go-to game plan remains, "This is all a fantasy on the part of Democrats." On November 13 (a very long time ago, as it predates the public impeachment testimony), Republican Congressman Mark Meadows tweeted:
4 inconvenient facts for the Democrat impeachment fantasy:
- Call transcript shows zero link between aid and political investigations
- Aid was released WITHOUT any new investigations
- Ukraine didn’t know aid was withheld during the call
- Trump/Zelensky both say: zero pressure
There was plenty of publicly available information to contradict the above tweet eight days ago, and more has come out since then. But this Republican line of defense endures. Broken down point by point, these specious lines of reasoning all function the same way: they only work if one takes a single fact, discusses that fact out of context, and ignores every related, contradictory fact. Let me show you what I mean.
Myth: Call transcript shows zero link between aid and political investigations
Fact: While it's true that Trump and President Zelensky didn't discuss the withheld aid package on the phone call that prompted the whistleblower complaint that lead to the impeachment investigation, there was a direct quid pro quo: Zelensky inquired about purchasing military aid, and Trump's response was, "I would like you to do us a favor though" in the from of politically-motivated investigations. Regarding the congressional aid package however, Ukraine was informed by E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland that there was little chance the aid would be forthcoming until they made a public statement committing to opening the investigations. Sondland has testified that while the tie between the release of the aid and the investigations was a presumption on his part, there was a quid pro quo from the White House communicated to him tying other calls and meetings with President Trump sought by Ukraine to the public announcement of those same investigations.
Myth: Aid was released WITHOUT any new investigations
Fact: The congressional aid package was released, not coincidentally when the whistleblower complaint was about to go public. The Ukrainians had indeed decided to announce the investigations based on the pressure they were facing from Trump. President Zelensky had planned to go public with the investigations live on CNN on September 13, but called off the announcement due to the release of aid.
Not a myth, but a misleading fact: Ukraine didn’t know aid was withheld during the call
Fact: They knew it a few days later.
Not a myth, but a misleading fact: Trump/Zelensky both say: zero pressure
Fact: In the first post in this series, I discussed the documentation that President Zelensky and his team felt enormously pressured by the conflict between their need for promised American support and Trump's demands for poltically-motivated investigations; this despite Zelensky had said, "No one pushed me" while sitting next to President Trump.
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