Trump Denies Withholding Ukraine Aid For Biden Probe

TPM Article Topics
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President Donald Trump denied Monday that he withheld $250 million in aid for Ukraine as leverage to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to churn up dirt on Hunter Biden and, by extension, former Vice President Joe Biden.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1250587
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Headlines containing his lies bolsters him.

The headline should note the president said something dubious. That is all.

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He’s not asking to churn up dirt, but to fabricate the appearance of dirt. Your own editor said so this morning.

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Did he use the word “sir”?

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“I did not make a statement that you have to do this or I won’t give you aid,” Trump said, according to pool reports. “I didn’t put any pressure on them whatsoever …

In this case, past performance is a guarantee of future results.

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Boy, I sure do trust this Trump feller to be telling the truth, he hasn’t lied to us yet or changed his story since this whole whistleblower sham came up…

Signed, Trump’s base

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It is telling that Trump has lawyers pouring over the exact words exchanged in that phone call looking for how they can defend every word.

I did not have sexual relations with the Magnitsky Act.

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“I didn’t put any pressure on them whatsoever …"

Being pressed eight seperate times to do something by the leader of the most powerful military and economic nation on the planet isn’t pressure?

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“Kyiv, if you’re (again) listening…”

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“I did not make a statement that you have to do this or I won’t give you aid,” Trump said.

If only we had some way of knowing.

Maybe a transcript or something.

(Gee, what are the odds that Ukraine – or the foreign intelligence services listening in – recorded it?)

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“Trump has been giving lip service to wanting the transcript from the call released. But he told the assembled reporters Monday that it wouldn’t set a “great precedent” to release the transcript.”

Dear President Zelensky,

Please ask Mr. Trump to release the transcript of the phone call. Or, release your own since he seems to be saying he wouldn’t mind.

Thanks,
Rick

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Excerpt from the transcript:

“. . . but seriously, corruption is bad, very bad. And it should be investigated, even if that meant investigating, say, a former Vice President and his son. Not a particular Vice President - could be Johnson, could be Agnew. But always with strong evidence - never create fake evidence even if you know it’s true.”
" - - - military funds. Greatest military in the world. I support my troops 100%. I’d like to support Ukrainian troops 100% too. More than 100%. But I don’t know. No pressure - no pressure. We’ll have to see what happens."

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Wannabe Mob-Boss.

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“I didn’t put any pressure on them whatsoever … Joe Biden and his son are corrupt.”

OMG

Sarah Palin called, she wants her brain back. Along with the deposit, you seem to have left it in much worse shape than before.

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Again, guys ‘under the bus’ is an idiom meaning you had to take any blame. It doesn’t mean if you looked up, you could see a bus’ chassis.

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It’s amazing (ok, not really) that he forgot about previous transcripts being leaked.

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Well, at least he wants somebody besides himself to be the topic of conversation for a change. So there’s that.

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image

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He didn’t have to actually withhold aid. He just had to threaten to.

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“Nice little country you have there. Be a real shame if something happened to it.”

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