Republicans have got nothing. As House Democrats continue with their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, top Trump ally and top House Republican Steve Scalise (La.) went on Fox News Sunday this weekend and trotted out essentially nothing but easily debunked talking points in his bid to defend Trump against concern over his scheme to get Ukraine to produce dirt on the Bidens. No matter how much shouting he does, Scalise can’t change reality!
Host Chris Wallace asked him about recent testimony that donor turned E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland — who met with the president numerous times — said that all Trump cared about surrounding Ukraine was getting them to investigate the Bidens.
Although people with firsthand accounts have already testified, Scalise replied:
‘Well, and again, we can talk about second and third and fourth hand information of people who ultimately are going to testify… but what the facts are, did the money actually go to Ukraine, and even on the phone call with President Trump and President Zelensky, they talked about the steps that Zelensky was taking to root out corruption… Everybody knew that Ukraine had problems with corruption, going back to possible interference that Russia also was involved in the 2016 election.’
Exclusively on FOX News Sunday: Congressman Steve Scalise reacts to David Holmes testimony in the impeachment hearings and Sondland’s revised testimony. And much more. Check your local listings. #FNS #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/B0jb4DgfdB
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) November 17, 2019
Wrong. Republicans’ allegations that Ukraine “meddled” in the 2016 election are nowhere near the point of the actually documented Russian hacking and misinformation campaign. Also, the money in question was only released after a whistleblower complaint surfaced revealing the Ukraine plot.
It got worse. Scalise eventually resorted to even more outright lies about the situation, claiming that the only two people who participated in the infamous July Trump-Zelensky phone conversation were the two presidents themselves. That’s simply not true, as Wallace promptly pointed out — a dozen or so people listened to the actual phone call! Some of them, like NSC officials Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Tim Morrison and Pence aide Jennifer Williams, have already testified.
Scalise didn’t seem to care. Like in the case of the president himself responding to news he doesn’t like, in Scalise’s estimation, this basic reality apparently became some kind of evidence of a conspiracy. He retorted:
‘Those were Schiff’s witnesses.’
Wallace pointed out:
‘Wait a minute, no, sir — they’re career foreign service officers and these are people who worked in the Trump administration… You had a woman yesterday who was on Vice President Pence’s staff: she said it was inappropriate. You had Tim Morrison who was on the NSC staff who said that alarm bells immediately went off for him. Alexander Vindman immediately went to see [NSC legal counsel]. These are all people — you say they’re Schiff’s witnesses, they all were working in the Trump administration!’
WATCH: House minority whip, Steve Scalise analyzes this week’s hearings in the impeachment inquiry and criticizes the process. All on FOX News Sunday. #FNS #FoxNews #Impeachment pic.twitter.com/4YFu3cgCGs
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) November 17, 2019
Considering the here documented utter struggle to get Trump allies to admit to basic realities of the situation surrounding Trump’s Ukraine plot and the impeachment inquiry, there seems to be little hope of getting any significant number of them to admit that the president went way out of line anytime soon. They are behaving like members of an ardent personality cult.
Impeachment inquiry witness and top Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor aptly summarized the situation when he said:
‘It made no sense. It was counterproductive to all that we had been trying to do. It was illogical, it could not be explained. It was crazy.’
