President Donald Trump has faced another round of public impeachment hearings this week, including high-profile witnesses like top Ukraine diplomat Bill Taylor, E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, and — on Thursday — former presidential Russia adviser Fiona Hill and State Department official David Holmes. Early Thursday, as Hill and Holmes testified to Congress, Trump tweeted another desperate attempt to distract from the proceedings that completely ignores the reality of the situation. In short, he wants us to believe that he’s innocent of the Ukraine plot allegations because he said so — and that’s it!
He tweeted a quote from former independent counsel Ken Starr, who infamously, and ironically, led an investigation that culminated in impeachment proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton. Trump shared:
‘Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel: “Does this reach the level of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors? My assessment of the evidence so far, NO WHERE CLOSE. The evidence is conflicting & ambiguous. Ambassador Sondland’s testimony stated that President Trump said the Ukraine President should just do the right thing (No Quid Pro Quo). You shouldn’t charge, but you cannot convict, a sitting president on the basis of conflicting and ambiguous evidence, and destabilize the American Government.” Thank you Ken!’
To be abundantly clear — Trump made the comments that Starr is referring to on the day that a whistleblower complaint revealing his Ukraine quid pro quo plot surfaced. In other words, Starr and Trump would like us to believe that Trump is innocent simply because he said so — but that’s just not how it works.
For her part, Hill was straightforwardly intense in her condemnation of ongoing Republican talking points. For example, responding to those Republicans who have sought to give some credibility to Trump’s idea that actually, it was Ukraine that meddled in the 2016 presidential election, and therefore, his demands for an investigation are somehow justified, Hill said:
‘Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.’
Fiona Hill’s scathing opening statement in today’s #ImpeachmentHearings reminds Republicans that Russia — not Ukraine — meddled in 2016. https://t.co/SjBxLJbi6a pic.twitter.com/43Fkt0LB5R
— Vox (@voxdotcom) November 21, 2019
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump’s latest distraction attempt below…
