Republicans are still struggling to mount any kind of systematic defense against the facts of President Donald Trump’s shakedown of Ukraine to try and get politically damaging intel on the Bidens. This weekend on CNN was no different — when pressed about the latest developments in the situation, which include The Washington Post reporting that some Republican Senators are willing to acknowledge a “quid pro quo” was part of Trump’s scheme, Trump supporter and former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor André Bauer dove straight into debunked conspiracy theories about the Bidens. Like many Republican members of Congress, Bauer refused to acknowledge the facts, and host Victor Blackwell eventually declared the conversation simply “done.”
Blackwell initially asked:
‘Are you willing to acknowledge what acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that this was a quid pro quo, and do you think it’s right for Senate Republicans to do so too?’
Bauer replied:
‘I don’t think it’s a quid pro quo… Trump to me said it in a jovial manner. He said, look, you all ought to investigate this guy, his son’s making $50,000 a month.’
The idea is that when Joe Biden, as vice president, joined the chorus of pressure against Ukraine and demanded they fire a certain top prosecutor, he was corruptly reaping personal benefit because his son Hunter worked for a company that prosecutor had investigated. However, there is no demonstrable evidence tying Biden’s pressure to Hunter Biden’s company — it’s just not there. The two situations were separate.
Bauer railed on anyway. Blackwell initially retorted by challenging Bauer’s assertion that Trump had asked for a Biden investigation in a “jovial manner,” which is actually the same “defense” a few prominent Republicans have prominently used. Sens. Marco Rubio (Fl.) and Roy Blunt (Mo.) along with Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) have all said Trump was joking about at least some of his more public calls for investigation.
Blackwell asked:
‘How did you get jovial out of a written partial transcript?’
Bauer had no answer. Instead, he rambled:
‘Again, he’s let the transcripts out. You can argue them any way you want, but, again, the real quid pro quo should be somebody says you’re not getting money, we’re going to hold it, I told him, and he says it in a video interview and his son is making $50,000 from the company that’s being investigated.’
After Blackwell pressed Bauer even more directly and asked whether he’d agree that Trump’s communications with Ukraine were “perfect,” the former GOP leader even claimed Trump was “actually right” in saying Trump Tower had been wiretapped. He was not.
The conversation quickly devolved into somewhat of a shouting match when Bauer refused to stop firing off seemingly just about whatever he could come up with as a “defense.”
Blackwell eventually summarized:
‘Okay. We’re done with this conversation. I thought this was going to be a talk about strategy from the Republicans who are now acknowledging quid pro quo…. Instead we had to go down this road of debunked conspiracies and fact-check for four and a half minutes.’
Check it out:
