President Donald Trump and his associates have recently tried a new defense for the Ukraine scandal, claiming that there couldn't have been a quid pro quo because the Ukrainians were supposedly unaware of the military aid freeze the Trump apparently ordered to force them to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Washington Post journalist David Swerdlick and his co-panelists smacked down that narrative.
"The New York Times reports that the Ukrainians learned in early August that aid was frozen and they were told to reach out to the acting White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney," said anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"Right. That can easily be established by the documents out there," said Swerdlick. "It’s ridiculous that the administration and their backers are trying to feed people this line. President Selensky reads the Washington Post, The New York Times. He knew that Congress approved the $391 billion. He knew that the president signed it. So then they’re sitting around wondering where’s the money? We need it. We’re fighting the Russians."
"Certainly by the summer, the Ukrainians are aware of stories showing Rudy Giuliani trying to push this storyline of what he wants investigated by the Ukrainians," agreed senior justice correspondent Evan Perez. "It’s all abundantly clear to everyone how the two things are connected, right? It’s not a huge guess by any means."
"Can we just say, you don’t even need a quid pro quo," added columnist Gloria Borger. "This is a phrase that the president has adopted. He’s saying it over and over and over again like he said witch hunt and all the rest during the Mueller investigation or collusion and whatever. You don’t need — the Constitution doesn’t say quid pro quo. It says this could be — Congress has to decide — an abuse of power, period, because the act, I’d like you to do me a favor, comma though, that’s the ask. That’s all you need. You don’t need Zelensky on the other end to say, oh, okay, I’ll do you that favor. We don’t care about Zelensky. We care about what the president did."
Watch below:
