On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace asked Vice President Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short asked why President Donald Trump wanted to investigate Ukraine interference in the 2016 election, which he claimed was Kremlin disinformation.
Wallace said, “Does President Trump still believe that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.”
Short said, “It doesn’t have to be an either-or. It can be both.”
Wallace asked again, “Forget the question of Russia. Does the president believe that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election?”
Short said, “He thinks we should at least investigate it, Chris …When Russia interfered in our election, Barack Obama was president, and Joe Biden was vice president and Joe Biden himself said he was in charge of Ukraine policy, and his son is getting between $50,000 and $80,000 a month to serve on a board where he has no experience whatsoever. So his question is, why shouldn’t we investigate it? It seemed like we could never get enough investigation of foreign interference in our elections for three years, but as soon as the president asks for it, it’s like, ‘Hey, we must impeach him.’”
Wallace said, “Well, that’s not why it happened, as you know. There was a phone call and the question of the conditionality of a White House visit and giving them military aid. It was on that basis he was asking for the investigation.”
He added, “Every major U.S. intelligence agency says it was Russia that interfered in the election. During a House Intel Committee hearings, a member of the Trump National Security council Fiona Hill said this idea that Ukraine interfered in the election is Kremlin disinformation, so why does the president think it’s still worth investigating whether Ukraine did something?”
Short said, “Why don’t we try to find the bottom line and the answers. We are not questioning Russia’s interference. I’m excepting that, but it doesn’t mean that just because Russia interfered doesn’t mean others didn’t as well.”
Wallace said, “They are saying and Fiona Hill that the whole question of Ukraine is Russian disinformation and in fact according to reporting, you may say it was inaccurate, Putin supposedly in a meeting they had in Germany told the president that it was Ukraine. And he apparently said to some people in the administration, ‘Putin told me at Ukraine.'”
Short responded, “I never heard that. I believe that there can be —just because you’re saying my house was robbed means your house couldn’t have been robbed. It’s quite possible that both were interfering in elections, so why not investigate that?”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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