Democrats Are Going All in on Trump’s Ukraine Scandal
Credit to Author: Daniel Newhauser| Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 05:07:05 +0000
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries held a printed copy of the memo in the Capitol basement, reading in seeming disbelief what President Donald Trump had asked of Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I mean, this is textbook abuse of power, pressuring a foreign leader to manufacture an investigation and target a citizen to find political dirt,” the New York Democrat said, tapping the printout he’d read for the first time just moments earlier. “It is as plain as day in the president's own words.”
House Democrats have reason to be in disbelief: The White House released, with little objection, a rough transcript of the call that Democrats say proves that Trump asked a foreign leader to intervene in a U.S. election by investigating 2020 Democratic frontrunner, Vice President Joe Biden — an impeachable offense, in their view.
But as damning as they believe the transcript to be, they want to see more.
What was released was not a verbatim transcript, and as of Wednesday afternoon, most have not seen the complaint from a national security whistleblower who first raised a red flag about the call. (The complaint was reportedly delivered to the House and Senate Intelligence committees late today.)
Democrats said Wednesday this is at best a high-stakes gamble by Trump to control the narrative again. At worst, he’s still hiding conduct worse than what the transcript revealed.
“That's what he does. He engages in wrongdoing, he admits it, and then he tries to say, ‘Well, it's not really what you think. It's not really what's on the paper,’” Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island said. “He's trying to get in front of the story and mischaracterize this serious misconduct.”
Impeachable Offenses for Dummies
Still, this time feels different, Democrats said. It’s happening in real time, rather than a rehash of the last election. It’s on paper, admitted and straight from the president’s mouth. And maybe most importantly, it’s easy for the average American to understand, unlike the the Odyssean twists and turns and nebulous characters of the Mueller saga.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi sees it as such a simple case that she told leaders in a closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon that it should become a leading focus of their impeachment investigation, though other alleged misconduct will stay on the table.
Still, other committees are sure to get in on the action as well. House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey told VICE News that if the president threatened to hold back foreign aid if Zelensky didn’t honor his request, it would not only be a violation of the oath of office, but a violation of the separation of powers, since Congress makes foreign aid funding decisions. She said she plans to draft an amendment targeting the president and release it as Congress looks to wrap up a government funding bill.
“I haven't drafted this yet, but it's our responsibility to appropriate the dollars, and the president should not be interfering with our decisions,” she said.
An important part of what Democrats think makes this different, too, is they think they can even get Republicans on board.
"Troubling"
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, for instance, expressed discomfort with the transcript.
“I indicated … over the weekend what I thought troubling behavior would be and asking a leader of a foreign government to investigate a political opponent is in my opinion, a troubling matter,” he told reporters, darting into the Senate chamber.
Most Republicans, however, stuck to the White House talking points—which, tangentially, the White House sent to Pelosi’s office on Wednesday, before following up with a recall email.
It wasn’t hard to get their team on message. The White House invited the most fervent supporters over to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Wednesday morning for a chance to get on the same page. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was part of a group of a dozen or so lawmakers invited to the White House at 8 a.m. to view the transcript.
He told reporters that White House counsel Pat Cipollone led the meeting. (Trump briefly dialed in from New York City.) The gathering included some of the president’s staunchest supporters on the Hill: Reps. Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, John Ratcliffe and Matt Gaetz, as well as Sens. Lindsey Graham, David Perdue, and others.
“We certainly saw no quid pro quo,” Johnson said to a swarm of reporters in the Capitol.
When asked if it was appropriate for Trump to request an investigation into Biden, Johnson seemed to think so.
“The American President is in charge of the Justice Department, and the Justice Department should be looking at any kind of wrongdoing that occurred in the prior election. Those are legitimate concerns,” he said. “I think when you read the transcript of the call, it’s turning into a real nothingburger.”
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said he was also at the White House earlier in the day, agreed, raising questions about whether the whistleblower was acting on political motivations.
“No quid pro quo,” McCarthy told VICE News in the Capitol. “It's no different than members all the time saying, ‘I've heard this, would you look into this?’ That's all it is.”
Senator Lindsey Graham echoed his Republican colleagues feeling that there was no direct quid pro quo made in Trump’s comments. There was no suggestion that if the Ukrainians didn’t do Trump’s bidding, they’d get cut off from aid, he said.
“If you impeach somebody over this phone call, god help the next president,” he said, adding that he didn’t love Rudy Giuliani’s involvement in the matter.
“Rudy Giuliani represents the president and I don’t know why he’s doing half of what he’s doing. Am I troubled by things the president says at times? Yes,” he said. “Am I troubled by what Obama did with Benghazi? Yes, but I didn’t call for the guy’s impeachment.”
No doubt, the road to getting 20 Republican senators to back an impeachment conviction will be difficult, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered his full support of Pelosi’s decision to move ahead.
“Considering this document was something the White House chose to release, it was far more damaging than any of us anticipated. In this telephone conversation, the president of the United States made an extraordinary request to the president of Ukraine: to investigate Trump’s political opponent and to aid President Trump’s reelection campaign,” he said.
Schumer held up the White House document and rhetorically asked reporters, “Does anyone think this conversation was in the national interest? Or was it in the president's personal, political interest?”
Democrats believe they don’t even need to establish a quid pro quo to convince the public of wrongdoing.
“If our President has asked any foreign leader to help investigate the political opponent of our president, that in and of itself is a violation of the oath. If there is a quid pro quo, I'll gladly add that on,” Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington said.
The Spin Room
But conversations with the White House and sources close to it reveal they’re maintaining a front that this controversy is bad for Democrats, not their guy.
A source close to the White House told VICE News immediately after the memo was released this morning that it wasn’t as bad as expected.
“For Nancy, this is a political misstep. I think she thought it was a lot more definitive than it was. I think it’s about 70% of what it was,” the source said.
“You also know why he [Trump] wants to release it? He’s [Zelensky’s] kissing his ass the whole time!”
Cover: Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., stops to speak to reporters as he arrives for a meeting in Speaker Pelosi's office in the Capitol on Wednesday. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
This article originally appeared on VICE US.