President Donald Trump does not seem to be taking ongoing public impeachment inquiry hearings well. This Wednesday, as Congressional investigators heard from E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Trump stopped on the White House lawn to hoarsely yell at reporters about how innocent he supposedly really is. He had apparent hand-written notes of a phone conversation he had with Sondland, and he tried to use those notes — that included the phrase “I want nothing” twice in all caps — as a desperate distraction from the ample evidence implicating him in a quid pro quo plot targeting Ukraine.
I WANT NOTHING.
I WANT NOTHING.
I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO.
TELL ZELENSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING.Consider how weak Trump mental command must be that he needs such simple notes as this. https://t.co/K5h4dAAsZR
— Jean Yoon (윤 진 희 or 尹真姬) (@jean_yoon) November 20, 2019
Despite occasionally insisting to some that he wasn’t doing anything wrong, the evidence of what Trump and his closest associates actually did tells a different story. They asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and said Ukraine wouldn’t get military aid until they did so. Even still, Trump would like us to simply take his word for it that he didn’t do anything wrong.
He shouted at reporters:
‘Ready? You have the cameras rolling? I want nothing! That’s what I want from Ukraine. That’s what I said. I want nothing! I said it twice. So he goes — he asked me the question, what do you want, I keep hearing all these things, what do you want? He finally gets me — I don’t know him very well, I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. Seems like a nice guy though! But I don’t know him well. He was with other candidates. He actually supported other candidates — not me. Came in late. But here’s my response — now, if you weren’t fake news, you’d cover it properly.’
Watch:
TRUMP on Gordon Sondland, who he described as “a really good man and great American” last month and who gave $1 million to his inaugural: “I don’t know him well. He was with other candidates … not me. Came in late.” pic.twitter.com/oy9TUbwPpf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 20, 2019
To be clear — despite Trump’s insistence that he doesn’t know Sondland well, the now ambassador gave a full $1 million to his inauguration committee. Also — Kellyanne Conway herself originally supported someone else in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, but you don’t hear Trump calling her a Never Trumper. His attempts at defenses just keep falling apart.
