As the Democrat’s impeachment hearings continue Donald Trump and his allies within the House continue to state that there was no “quid pro quo.”
However, it took Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s private attorney, two tweets to blow that talking point out of the water.
Giuliani tweeted twice on Thursday from somewhere in Ukraine., where he traveled to try and dig up dirt on Donald Trump’s political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. In the two tweets, Giuliani acknowledged a link between ongoing US assistance to Ukraine and investigations into Joe Biden and his family.
“The conversation about corruption in Ukraine was based on compelling evidence of criminal conduct by then VP Biden, in 2016, that has not been resolved and until it is will be a major obstacle … to the US assisting Ukraine with its anti-corruption reforms,” Giuliani tweeted,
…to the US assisting Ukraine with its anti-corruption reforms.
The American people will learn that Biden & other Obama administration officials, contributed to the increased level of corruption in Ukraine between 2014 to 2016.
This evidence will all be released very soon.
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) December 5, 2019
Right there Giuliani tweeted the quid pro quo.
Trump has repeatedly attempted to make his controversial actions with Ukraine as being rooted in Trump’s “good-faith concerns” about “corruption,” instead of his own personal and political self-interests.
Giuliani’s tweet reveals the emptiness of that talking point. “Corruption” is clearly just a replacement word for “Biden.”
Despite Guliani’s tweets on Friday, White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley appeared on Fox News where he claimed that Trump “didn’t press [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky on anything other than getting to the bottom of corruption in his country. We know that.”
HOGAN GIDLEY TODAY: Trump "didn't press Zelensky on anything other than getting to the bottom of corruption in his country. We know that"
RUDY GIULIANI YESTERDAY: "The conversation about corruption in Ukraine was based on compelling evidence of criminal conduct by then VP Biden" pic.twitter.com/Vl3iyFitwx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 6, 2019
It is also important to note that the word “corruption” does not appear at all on the summaries that the White House released the Trump-Zelensky phone call.
