According to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), elements of quid pro quo when it comes to dealing with foreign governments that receive aid from the United States should be the rule and not the exception nor considered untoward.
During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show” earlier this week, Brooks, who was fresh off participating in the so-called storming of the House Intelligence Committee hearings on impeachment, said when things given to other governments, there should be an expectation from the United States.
He said it was not limited to investigations pertaining to corruption, as is what is alleged by House Democrats and the basis of their “impeachment inquiry.”
“Let me be real clear: In every instance in which the United States government gives another country something, whether it be military supply or it be food, there better dadgum well be a quid pro quo,” Brooks said. “There better be an expectation, for example, that military equipment we give the Ukraine is going to be used to fight the Russians. Another quid pro quo is that we have an expectation that Ukraine is not going to give that military equipment to any of our enemies like al Qaeda, the Islamic State, or what have you. If we give food, we expect that food aid to go to starving people. We don’t expect it to be sold on the black market for the profits of somebody who is going to be engaged in corrupt activities.”
“So there is always a quid pro quo, or there should be, if we’re going to engage in responsible government,” Brooks continued. “That brings us to the question of whether Trump stepped across the line in requesting that Ukraine conduct an investigation into possible corruption. Absolutely Ukraine should investigate possible corruption. And we should not give any country aid that might be diverted because the entity that is getting that money is corrupt, and people are lining their pockets instead of using that money or assets of the United States of America for the purposes intended. In this instance, we have a treaty between the United States of America and the Ukraine that was signed by President Bill Clinton that obligates both Ukraine and the United States of America, and our respective governments to ferret out corruption.”
“The president should be making anti-corruption efforts a part of any foreign aid transaction with any country on earth,” he added.
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