Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ambassador Sondland Blows Holes in Democrats' Impeachment Narrative

According to the mainstream anti-Trump media and the House Democrats who are intent on ousting President Trump from office, Gordon Sondland, President Trump's choice as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, delivered blockbuster testimony against the president.

Sondland replied: "Yes." In a follow-up question, Rep. Turner asked, "So you really have no testimony here today that ties President Trump to a scheme to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for these investigations?" Ambassador Sondland replied, "Other than my own presumption." At another point in his testimony, the ambassador downgraded his "Presumption" of a quid pro quo to "My own personal guess."

He also referred to what he told Ambassador Sondland after learning that the ambassador was preparing to provide congressional testimony: "'I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO! TELL PRESIDENT ZELENSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING!' Later, Ambassador Sondland said that I told him, 'Good, go tell the truth!' This Witch Hunt must end NOW. So bad for our Country!".

Ambassador Sondland testified that President Trump had reservations regarding the amount of U.S. spending on foreign aid and the failure of European countries to do their fair share in providing financial support to Ukraine.

Ambassador Sondland also testified that at a May 23rd meeting he attended with the president to brief him on the recently elected President Zelensky, "President Trump was skeptical." Ambassador Sondland added, "He expressed concerns that the Ukrainian government was not serious about reform. He even mentioned that Ukraine tried to take him down in the last election."

The direct evidence that Ambassador Sondland provided in his testimony pointed instead to President Trump's skepticism about U.S. foreign aid in general, Europe's free-riding on U.S. spending to support Ukraine, and the president's skepticism regarding Ukraine's commitment to anti-corruption reform given its history and reported efforts to undermine his candidacy.

He did so towards the end of the ambassador's testimony, asking repeatedly, "Who would benefit from an investigation of the Bidens?" Displaying increasing frustration, Ambassador Sondland finally responded, "I assume President Trump would." Rep. Maloney then sought to convert Ambassador Sondland's assumption in response to a hypothetical question into some sort of a major concession of President Trump's guilt that had to be pulled out of a reluctant witness.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/ambassador-sondland-blows-holes-democrats-joseph-klein/

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