Republicans ripped for ‘Stand with Ukraine’ message after defending Trump’s ‘perfect call’
White House photo of President Donald Trump talking on the phone aboard Air Force One
February 28, 2022
The events that culminated in Donald Trump's first impeachment are drawing renewed attention as Ukrainian resistance fighters attempt to fend off Vladimir Putin's invasion.
"It’s worth remembering now, as so many Republicans pin “Stand with Ukraine” images to their profiles, how little most of them cared when Donald Trump withheld critical military assistance from the country in 2019 as he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do his political dirty work," conservative Amanda Carpenter wrote for The Bulwark.
Carpenter worked as a speechwriter for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
"At the time, Trump’s bold attempt to get Zelensky to announce sham investigations into the Biden family and 2016 conspiracy theories were primarily viewed as a domestic affront. But the sight of Russian rockets raining down on Kyiv this week was a reminder that this obscene 'drug deal' had real-world consequences. At the center of the Ukrainian scandal was a sickening truth: Trump did not see the Ukrainians as the heroes we see today; he saw them as pawns to be used for his benefit," she wrote. "When Zelensky spoke with Trump in that “perfect” 2019 phone call, the newly-elected 44-year old Ukrainian President didn’t want much. Just two things: the military aid Congress had already approved and a White House meeting to show the world that America stood with Ukraine against Russian aggression. Both would have been so easy to give."
READ: The top 20 stupidest things Donald Trump said in 2020
Trump has praised "savvy" Putin's plan to invade Ukraine as "genius" while pushing his delusion of election fraud in America's 2020 presidential election.
Carpenter linked today's events back to Trump's term as president, when he allegedly made military aid to Ukraine contingent upon a quid pro quo.
"Trump didn’t care about the people of Ukraine—their lives or their democracy. He simply understood that he had power over them and could abuse this power to help his re-election. And his fellow Republicans, almost to a person, either helped him with this blackmail or defended it once it came to light," Carpenter wrote. "Trump’s scheme was a far-reaching, elaborate shakedown championed by Rudy Giuliani."
Republicans at the time largely defended Trump's conduct on his phone call with Zelensky.
"Justin Amash, a libertarian who left the GOP in July 2019, was the only member on the right side of the aisle in the House of Representatives to vote to impeach Trump for squeezing Ukraine. Mitt Romney was the only Republican in the Senate who voted to convict Trump," she wrote. "The list of Republicans who alibied Trump’s treatment of Ukraine is long and distinguished. They hope that their yellow and blue Twitter icons will make you forget that they excused it."
Carpenter reminded that Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified there was a quid pro quo.
Read the full column.
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