In the hours after the release Wednesday of the rough transcript of President Donald Trump’s July phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the White House circulated an email with proposed talking points for Trump’s defenders.
Unfortunately for the White House, the email was mistakenly sent to not only Republicans but also Democratic lawmakers and their staffs.
The message, titled, “What you need to know: President Trump’s call with President Zelenskyy,” was quickly recalled – but not before Democrats took to Twitter to ridicule the White House over the error.
“I would like to thank @WhiteHouse for sending me their talking points on how best to spin the disastrous Trump/Zelensky call in Trump’s favor,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a tweet. “However, I will not be using their spin and will instead stick with the truth. But thanks though.”
Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Bill Pascrell, N.J., shared the full talking points in a tweet, calling them “complete Orwellian lies and toxic trash.”
“But maybe you’d like to read them to appreciate their corruption! Hazmat suit possibly required,” he said.
Several Democratic Hill staffers said they had received the talking points as well as a follow-up email recalling the message.
According to the rough transcript of the call, Trump repeatedly said Zelensky should work with Attorney General William Barr or Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani had separately pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate the conduct of former vice president Joe Biden.
Among the talking points distributed by the White House is the claim that there was no quid pro quo and that “what the President actually talked about was entirely proper.”
The White House argues that Trump “did not mention Rudy Giuliani or Vice President Biden until after President Zelenskyy had raised Giuliani first.” But the email glosses over the fact that Trump did mention Biden of his own accord.
The White House also claims in the email that “the real scandal” is about leaks in the run-up to the release of the rough transcript. And the email claims that the whistleblower complaint “was handled absolutely by the book and it was properly determined that no further action should be taken.”
Democrats have maintained that a quid pro quo is not necessary for the president’s conduct to be impeachable. They have also pressed for the White House to release the whistleblower complaint to the House and Senate intelligence committees, for the whistleblower to be allowed to testify and for Barr to recuse himself until the matter is resolved.
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Felicia Sonmez
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GOP to Biden: Release transcripts of your calls with Ukrainian and Chinese leaders
The Republican National Committee presented a challenge to Joe Biden on Tuesday, after the Democratic presidential candidate called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Earlier in the day, the president announced that he would release the full transcript of a call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, following an anonymous whistleblower’s allegations of impropriety during the conversation.
RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel then called on the former vice president to release the transcripts of his own conversations with Ukrainian and Chinese leaders.
McDaniel issued a statement, saying:
Once again, Joe Biden has shown he is just as extreme as the rest of the 2020 Democrats who are desperate to bring President Trump down. Instead of backing a baseless impeachment effort, Biden should be answering for the only scandal that exists: Why a corrupt Ukrainian company paid his son $50,000 a month to lobby the Obama-Biden administration, and why Biden threatened the Ukrainians if they failed to fire a prosecutor investigating the company.
Now that the President has authorized the release of the transcript of his call with President Zelensky, we call on Biden to release the transcripts of his calls as Vice President with Ukrainian and Chinese leaders while his son was conducting shady business deals in those countries.
As candidate Trump said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters.”
Looks like he’s right – he openly pressures a foreign leader to investigate his main rival over discredited charges, tells the leader to get help from Trump’s personal attorney, is proud of it, and his supporters stick with him.