First off the White House did not make public a transcript of Donald Trump's little chat with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky. As the disclaimer on the release said, "A Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation (TELECON) is not a verbatim transcript of a discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC Policy Staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place..."
What the statement tells us is there could be more to what was said between the two national leaders than we will never know.
That being the case, here is part of what Situation Room Duty Officers and NSC Policy Staff did take down.
President Trump: (speaking about the lack of European aid to Ukraine..."but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say it is reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good, but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine."
Zelensky immediately agreed. "Yes," he said, "You are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but 1000%..." He went on to complain about the lack of western European help in general and more specifically when it came to enforcing sanctions leveled at Russia.
Then Zelensky said, "I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes."
The key word there was, "almost." Zelensky used it because he was waiting for American cash to assist Ukraine in buying the armaments. For those confused, there is an old American tradition going back to WWII which says, We won't simply give you arms, but we'll loan, or grant you the cash to buy them from us.
Donald John Trump, President of the United States responded to the Ukrainian head of state by saying, "I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it..."
Trump then asked, Zelensky--a guy whose nation's very existence is dependent on U.S. military aid--to track down the Democratic National Committee's computer servers which, according to conspiracy wankers, are located in Ukraine. The servers, which Trump has fixated on for years now, reportedly contain 30,000 emails to and from Hillary Clinton. You might remember her. She ran against Trump in 2016 and won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college. Nearly three years later his obsession with, "enemies," is so great he is still trying to dig up dirt on a political opponent he not only defeated, but is now retired from the game. He also told the President of Ukraine, he would have the U.S. Attorney General assist in the investigation.
A few moments later Zelensky, during a cloying cascade of compliments and reassurances, told, Trump, "I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine."
Until that moment in the conversation, Rudy Giuliani's name had not come up. In other words, this phone call either wasn't the first conversation he'd had with Zelensky about all this shit, or the President of Ukraine was under the impression Giuliani is the American A.G.
Mr. Trump then boasted about the talents of his personal lawyer and again promised Attorney General Bill Barr would help in the investigation. He also praised the former Ukrainian chief prosecutor and roundly dissed the sacked American ambassador to the country. It was at that point he told Zelensky, "The other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it...it sounds horrible to me."
Three things happened in that paragraph. First, the President, for the second time, openly asked the head of a foreign state to dig up dirt on a domestic political opponent. (whenever Trump says, "a lot of people," he means himself) Second, he praised a deposed Ukrainian prosecutor who had, before Joe Biden's intervention, dropped the investigation into Hunter Biden's energy company. He was a man, in fact, so personally and profoundly corrupt that besides Biden, then a representative of President Obama, all of western Europe was demanding his removal. Third, he promised that the United States of America's Justice Department would actively aid Ukrainian efforts to discredit the democratic party's possible nominee.
When the phone call took place American military aid to Ukraine, to the chagrin of even Congressional republicans, not to mention the Ukrainians, had been inexplicably delayed. After Zelensky's assurances and fealty was received--at one point he made sure to tell the President that during his last visit to the U.S. he stayed at a Trump owned hotel--the aid was released.
No, The Don didn't openly ask for a quid pro quo. He is too much of an accomplished felon to make that sort of mistake. And in truth he didn't need to. Zelensky isn't a fool. He's been dealing with Putin, for God's sake and understands perfectly when his country is being leaned on by a mob boss. Hell, the only thing missing in the scene was Trump sitting in a leather chair petting a purring cat during the conversation.
As reprehensible as all this was we aren't at the bottom of it yet. Think about it. The Trump people released this exercise of clear criminal extortion because in their amoral brains the boss didn't do anything wrong. Ponder that mindset as you speculate about what is in the whistle blower's report which they still refuse to release.
Ladies and gentlemen, this constitutional nightmare is just beginning.
9-25-19
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