New Quid Quo Pro Scandal Engulfs Trump Administration

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It’s not a surprise to anyone that Donald Trump feels no shame in asking foreign countries for help in a presidential election. Since the democratic process means nothing to him – see his tweets earlier in the week about delaying the election until the COVID-19 crisis that has so plagued his poll numbers is over for proof of this – he has stated publicly that he would have no problem asking any country to interfere in an American election on his behalf.

Trump has previously publicly implored Russia in 2016 to hack Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails from the email server scandal during her time as secretary of state and China to investigate Joe Biden and his family. He clearly asked the president of Ukraine to do the same, as evidenced in the transcript of the phone call that got him impeached. Now, it appears that American Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman may have tried to get Brazil to help Trump in the 2020 election, as well.

According to The New York Times:

‘In a letter sent Friday afternoon, Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel demanded that the ambassador, Todd Chapman, produce “any and all documents referring or related to any discussions” he has held with Brazilian officials in recent weeks about their nation’s tariffs on ethanol, an important agricultural export for Iowa, a potential swing state in the American presidential election.

‘The committee’s letter was sent in response to reports in the Brazilian news media this week saying that Mr. Chapman, a career diplomat, made it clear to Brazilian officials they could bolster Mr. Trump’s electoral chances in Iowa if Brazil lifted its ethanol tariffs.’

What has been reported by the news media in Brazil is that Chapman proposed lifting tariffs on ethanol to help Trump’s poll numbers in Iowa, a state he won by 9.6 percentage points in 2016 in which he is now only 1.5 percentage points ahead of Biden, making a red state that shouldn’t be difficult to win an unexpected swing state for 2020.

‘The O Globo newspaper published a story on Thursday saying Mr. Chapman had underscored “the importance to the Brazilian government of keeping Donald Trump” in office. Mr. Bolsonaro, a far-right leader, has made closer alignment with the Trump administration his top foreign policy priority.

‘A competing newspaper, Estadão, published an article Fridaysaying its reporters independently confirmed that the ambassador framed his argument against tariffs in partisan terms. The article said the Brazilian officials who met with Mr. Chapman rejected the appeal, declining to be drawn into the American presidential battle.’

Although the Brazilian media has not revealed their sources for the story, a government official was willing to go on the record as saying that he had witnessed Chapman attempting to persuade other Brazilian government officials to help trump in the upcoming elections.

‘Alceu Moreira, a Brazilian congressman who heads the agricultural caucus, told The New York Times in an interview that Mr. Chapman had made repeated references to the electoral calendar during a recent meeting the two had about ethanol.

‘He said that Mr. Chapman did not explicitly urge him to help the Trump campaign or bring up the contest in Iowa — but that the American ambassador did tie the ethanol issue to the election.’

Featured image screenshot via YouTube