Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) on Friday went on a frenzied rant in a series of tweets, praising House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and encouraging President Trump to “pack up his tanning bed & leave.”
The California lawmaker, who called for Trump’s impeachment long before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) caved and announced the launch of an inquiry, went on a frenzied rant on Twitter Friday evening, accusing the GOP of “scrambling” and “lying” and falsely assessing that Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland proved the existence of “quid pro quo.” She also gave a “shoutout” to Schiff, and suggested that Trump “pack up his tanning bed & leave.”
“GOP scrambling & can’t get their lies straight. First they say no quid pro quo when Trump w/held mil. aid from Ukraine for dirt on Biden. Then Mulvaney says this happens all the time & “get over it.” Lies getting entangled,” she began.
“Now we know Trump atty Giuliani is the real SecOfState,” she continued.
“Sondland lied in his early testimony defending Trump and now that he sees the facts are unfolding about this crooked president, he has changed his lies & confirmed a quid pro quo,” she added.
“He’s only telling the truth now to save his hide! You can run but you can’t hide”:
However, Waters’ assessment on Sondland, particularly, is false. As Breitbart News reported, “Sondland said that he ‘presumed’ there was a ‘quid pro quo.’ But he did not have any first-hand knowledge of one, and other witnesses have testified that there was no such ‘quid pro quo’ at all.”
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But there are two big logical leaps in Sondland’s statement.
The first is that he only “presumed” there was a “quid pro quo” — that is, he did not have direct knowledge of one.
The second is that he told the Ukrainians that a “quid pro quo” was “likely” — that is, he did not know with certainty.
In their rush to accuse the Trump administration of wrongdoing, Democrats and the media have overlooked one other key fact: the crucial August 2019 Politico article.
The article, “Trump holds up Ukraine military aid meant to confront Russia,” dated August 28, was the first that the Ukrainians ever knew about any withholding of aid — five weeks after the phone call between Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky which supposedly prompted the so-called “whistleblower” to approach Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. Sondland refers specifically to September.
Therefore what changed his — and others’ — impression was not anything the administration (or its representatives) did or said. Rather, it was the media.
Waters continued, praising Schiff’s “masterful job conducting hearings & releasing transcripts.”
“Trump can’t intimidate Schiff or stop the facts. He should just take a cue from Nixon, pack up his tanning bed & leave,” she continued:
In another, slightly unrelated tweet, Waters weighed in on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’senatorial bid, calling him a “racist”:
Trump denied those allegations last year:
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