Ex-GOP congressman says transcripts reveal ‘scurrilous’ behavior: ‘Look at how Republicans behaved’

Former Republican Congressman David Jolly nailed President Donald Trump and his cadre of cabinet officials who have been attempting to run foreign policy based on a conspiracy theory.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace cited former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's testimony that EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland told her that the best way to save herself was to tweet out that she was a huge supporter of the president and any reports of concerns were "fake news."

"You look at public opinion, and I am fascinated by this, mostly because I was so exasperated that after Mueller came out with 400 pages with, at best, misconduct from Donald Trump and his campaign," Wallace said. "It didn't move a blip. This has swung so dramatically because I think it's not just a phone call. It never was just a phone call. If they brazenly released a phone call, that was obviously just the tip of the iceberg."

When talking about the Yovanovitch and Sondland testimony, Wallace said, "So, I don't know if Sondland is as corrupt as the rest of them or just stupid, but who asks a career foreign service officer to tweet out a campaign endorsement?"

Jolly said that it was the former, Sondland is just as corrupt. He specifically cited that Sondland gave Trump $1 million to get the job as the EU ambassador.

It "stands in stark contrast to somebody like Yovanovitch or McKinley who are career foreign service officers that uphold the dignity and integrity of the State Department and the United States," said Jolly. "Sondland was doing the political and personal bidding of Donald Trump in that moment. Yovanovitch wouldn't do it. I think the top-line takeaway from the release of these transcripts -- and the Democrats are doing this exactly right -- they are trying to keep control of the narrative every single day. Yovanovitch confirms that this was a very well corroborated complex intention of Trumpworld to meddle in foreign affairs and do so to benefit the president personally."

Yovanovitch mentioned Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr. specifically, Jolly noted, as those helping try to impact the international relations between Ukraine and the U.S. Neither of the men work for the State Department.

"McKinley says, 'the reason I resigned was because this administration is asking ambassadors to do work to benefit the president politically, personally, and I'm not going to do it,'" Jolly recalled. "The two themes that caught me that I think maybe underreported because the facts are so glaring, the first is the security issue that you opened with about Yovanovich. This is serious. We sat around this table, we have talked about how Trump and emboldened Charlottesville. We talked about how Trump emboldened attacks on Elijah Cummings in the city of Baltimore about AOC, about the bomber and his van who wanted to shoot up the press corps and how the president gave comfort to these people. Here he is suggesting that Yovanovitch is a dirty ambassador who is not supporting Donald Trump and she said, 'I had to leave the country because there is was personal fear.'"

Another thing he said hasn't been touched on is that the transcript showed how Republicans behaved during the hearings.

"Not a single one was concerned about her security," Jolly continued. "Not a single one of them was concerned about this end-around U.S. policy. Not a single one was concerned about U.S. National security. It was all attacks on the investigators and undermining the credibility of witnesses. It was one more scurrilous moment from Republicans, and for them to suggest that they were locked out, they actually were there! And there's a reason they probably didn't want these transcripts released because it showed juvenile behavior on behalf of leading Republicans who were in the room who had no interest in national security."

Watch the clip below: