House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday touted the rocky basis for her party’s impeachment inquiry, implying that President Donald Trump actively participated in a quid pro quo and asked “for bogus investigations to smear” his “political opponents.”
The president expressed his frustration with the partisan-driven impeachment effort on Tuesday, writing, “How many more Never Trumpers will be allowed to testify about a perfectly appropriate phone call when all anyone has to do is READ THE TRANSCRIPT!”
“I knew people were listening in on the call (why would I say something inappropriate?), which was fine with me, but why so many?” Trump asked.
Pelosi, who does not directly respond to Trump’s tweets often, retweeted Trump with a lengthy remark, peddling her party’s talking points for the inquiry:
Trump authorized the release of the “complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript” following the emergence of a complaint from a so-called “whistleblower.” The president’s mention of a “favor” was not immediately followed by a discussion of Biden, as Pelosi suggests.
“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the·whole situation,” Trump said.
The conversation showed no quid pro quo or pressure, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed.
“I think you read everything. I think you read text. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be involved to democratic open elections, elections of USA,” he told reporters last month.
“No, sure, we had I think good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I — so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me,” he added.
“President Trump asked about Ukraine investigating ‘Crowdstrike’ (an investigation unrelated to Biden). It was Ukraine President Zelenskyy, not President Trump, who first brought up investigations beyond ‘Crowdstrike,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said in a statement following the transcript’s release.
“Only thereafter did President Trump mention then-Vice President Joe Biden’s possible illegal interference in a Ukraine prosecutor’s investigation of Biden’s son,” he added.
Trump said Biden “went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution” during the phone call – a reference to the former vice president touting his role in the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Bursisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden was making tens of thousands of dollars per month.
“I said, nah, I’m not going to — or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him,” Biden said during an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations last year.
“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours,” he continued.
“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired,” he bragged.
House Democrats are angling to hold a vote on impeachment inquiry procedures on Thursday, although House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) signaled on Tuesday that their plans could hit a snag.
“We’re going to have to consider whether or not it’s ready to go on Thursday. I hope that’s the case,” Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday.
The vote itself would “not authorize the inquiry,” as the Washington Post indicated. Rather, it would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” on the ongoing inquiry, which Republicans already view as illegitimate.