It’s happened again. President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has seemingly implicated his client on national television. Well after the infamous incident where he revealed Trump’s involvement in a hush money scandal, Giuliani has now admitted the possibility that Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to try and dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 elections in exchange for planned aid to the Ukrainians. Initially, in a Monday morning talk on-air with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Giuliani insisted that the allegation of pressure was false, but then he admitted that he couldn’t actually claim that with 100 percent certainty.
Bartiromo bluntly asked:
‘Did the president threaten to cut off aid to the Ukraine?’
Giuliani interjected:
‘No. No, that was a false story.’
Bartiromo shot back:
‘100 percent?’
Giuliani admitted:
‘Well I can’t tell you if it’s 100 percent.’
Well then why did you say that it’s a false story if you can’t actually assert as much with 100 percent certainty? Is your allegation that it’s a false story itself fake news?
Check out the clip:
BARTIROMO: Did the president threaten to cut off aid to Ukraine?
GIULIANI: No, no. That was a false story.
BARTIROMO: 100 percent?
GIULIANI: Well I can’t tell you if it’s 100% percent. pic.twitter.com/ApBGsK6kZz— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2019
Bartiromo eventually tried to get more answers out of Giuliani, asking why the administration delayed aid to Ukraine if not for the reasons that have been claimed in reporting about Trump’s apparent pressure on the Ukrainians, but she didn’t get anything. As she asked that question, Giuliani started down a completely different path as if he wasn’t even listening, complaining:
‘The Wall Street Journal also fails in its false article today — it fails to point out on the headlines on Saturday in the Ukraine was the Ukrainian version of this story. Ukraine says no pressure.’
First of all — as reporter Jennifer Hayden pointed out:
‘So the American people are not supposed to trust Wall Street Journal reporting, but instead should trust Ukranian newspapers? Here’s how we can easily clear up the confusion: IMMEDIATELY RELEASE THE TRANSCRIPTS AND AUDIO. Bring in Giuliani and others to testify to Congress.’
Secondly — Giuliani and others keep harping on the point of there supposedly having been “no pressure,” while just in these last few days, Trump has now repeatedly basically admitted to discussing the Bidens with Zelensky in the first place. In other words, their best defense is that while Trump did do what was alleged, it wasn’t “bad.” It was good! It was — to use Trump’s language — perfect! Also, up is down! Left is right! Crime is legal! That is basically the level they’re at here.
The scandal first emerged in the press after the revelation of a whistleblower complaint from someone in the intelligence community about what’s been reported to be the president’s communications with Zelensky. Although law demands that the complaint be submitted to Congress, intelligence community officials including the acting Director of National Intelligence and the intelligence community’s inspector general have refused to do so, apparently at the direction of higher-ups in the Trump administration. If the situation is so innocuous, why don’t they just release the material? We know the answer to that — it’s not innocuous.
Featured Image via screenshot
