Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who played a crucial role in President Trump and his lawyer’s Ukraine pressure campaign, told lawmakers on Thursday that he only sent the infamous “no quid pro quo” text because the President repeatedly told him there wasn’t, Politico reported.
“And I recall the President was in a bad mood,” Sondland said.
Ambassador Sondland, you’re going to have to be more specific.
Given a few days to think over his testimony Sondlund will obviously have to request another appearance before committees to amend his testimony. He has apparently recalled events and communications that never really happened.
Donald, meet bus wheels.
The devil made him do it, tricky manipulator that he is. Poor lamb.
So, did he save himself and his hotels?
This feels like “no news”. If I’m not mistaken, the 2 quotes were from the prepared statement. The “tacit pressure” by Trump sounds like surmise, as it is without attribution.
C’mon team. If there’s nothing to actually report leave it be.
What we saw in Sondland is what we are going to see over and over again. Nobody has any personal loyalty to Donald J. Trump. Most Presidents have some basic leadership ability or charisma that will inspire genuine affection and support, at least from some of his closest supporters. Some of those supporters will go to prison or take a bullet for the leader. Not Donald J. Trump. He seems devoid of any ability to inspire anyone. He is a celebrity but not much more.
isn’t there more than enough evidence, as in truck loads, to finally put trump against the wall one last time and end his reign of terror? yes there is.
All of congress needs to step up and do what they already know needs to be done.
twitter be damned.
it’s past the point of fix it now or forever be a country of doubt within the world.
Not a good place to be.
.
Sondland is a fish out of water. Completely unequipped for DC. To think he spent $1 million for the opportunity to prove his doofusness…
OT, but Erdogan continues to disrespect Trump. How embarrassing. Having nukes does not a great country make.
“And I recall the President was in a bad mood because I forgot to mention adoptions in my text messages to Bill Taylor. I’m very sorry. May I go now? Only, you see, now my wife is in a bad mood.”
[quote=]
Trump’s main mitigation in response to the release of the damning text messages has been to point to Sondland’s text message to Bill Taylor, the charge d’affaires for Ukraine, denying there was any quid pro quo arrangement involving the arrangement of a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian president.
[/quote]
Just so I have this straight… Trump’s defense is to point to someone else’s text stating there was no quid pro quo. But it turns out that Trump personally dictated that text. So that entire defense dissolves away, and we’re left again with Trump suspiciously reciting the words “no quid pro quo” when everybody involved knew there was a quid pro quo.
I mean, who finds a need to say the words “no quid pro quo” at a moment when there actually is no quid pro quo at work? Uttering those words is a tacit admission of guilt. It reminds me of a scene from a comedy where an inept criminal leans over a concealed wire and clumsily and loudly proclaims a supposedly exculpatory but comically false statement. That’s our president.
And his marriage?
Incompatible with politeness. LOL. That is almost as good as Kim calling him a dotard.
Let’s see if I got this right.
This administration has barred people involved in the Ukraine morass from testifying before any House committee. These individuals are leapfrogging over each other to testify. And now we have this,
“Sondland said it was Giuliani who initially drew a direct line between scheduling an official visit with Volodymyr Zelensky and demands for a probe into Trump’s political rivals.”
From my perspective, it does not even look like Sondland was being squeezed to deliver this information. It makes me wonder what else he delivered under a hint of pressure.
Always a difficult choice, do I want to come off as a willing flunky, a hapless dupe, or a regretful but intelligent possible criminal? Sondland is going for stupidly, blindly ignorant combination of flunky and dupe.
Did he discuss Ukraine paying its fair share of the Wall?
But it was a beautiful, beautiful text. So sad.
