There is nothing to be gained and only lost from Zelensky admitting he felt pressure. In this case "lost" is entire sections of Ukraine as the Russian-backed separatists advance. Look no futher than his aids resistance to both the statement Sondland/Volker drafted for them and concern that the aid was being held up to understand the honest feelings of Zelensky's administration.
After watching what transpired with the Kurds I'd say the same thing...There are a lot of dead former allies of ours over a phone call with Erdrogon.
So you don't think the Ukrainians have any reason to believe failure to appease Donald Trump could have catastrophic negative consequences for themselves and their country? If so, that makes one of us. I don't think the Donald is especially loyal or fair-minded.
You guys that always think y’all got Trump this time are only setting yourself up for disappointment every time. It’s so humorous. So how do the Ukraine leaders feel pressure by Trump when they never knew we were holding up funds? That’s like a husband and wife deciding to ground their son but never tells him. Is it really grounding him if he’s not told?
I35 --saying that the Ukranians didn't know the money had been appropriated? Wow, they should get a subscription to the Congressional Record.
From Wikipedia. Like a business waiting to get paid to stay in business, Ukraine was trying to figure out what was holding up the money. Now they learn like all of us that Trump personally asked for it to be put on hold and only acquiesced in September after Congress, including Republicans, began pressing the Administration for answers on the delay.
That’s not what I said at all. How could you read that and come to the conclusion that I said they didn’t know it was appropriated? It was appropriated and then the Trump admin held it up without the Ukraine leaders knowing. Don’t take my word for it, the Ukraine leaders said that. Also it had nothing to do with doing him a favor. They held it up about a month ago before they even spoke on the phone on anything.
They held it up 7-10 days before the call based on all reports. Congress should a more specific timeline today as a Pentagon official involved with the disbursement is testifying right now.
I knew it was before the telephone meeting. When they had the phone meeting according to the phone transcript Trump never once said you better do an investigation on Joe Biden or I won’t give you the money we appropriated for you.
Maybe we don't disagree at all. The Ukrainians knew the money had been appropriated and knew they didn't have it because it was being withheld by the Trump Administration. I guess you are contending they could not have conceived that Trump was personally behind it and it would have been a stretch for them to imagine that granting a personal favor he requested in a much sought after call with their Prime Minister would somehow clear the logjam? Hey, we are all entitled to believe what we want to believe.
You are correct that Trump didn't overtly tie the appropriations to a Biden investigation on the call. That was happening via Sondland, Volker and Taylor per reports on their testimony. It was happening with Trump's direction based on Sondland's testimony.
Impeachment deposition delayed after Republicans storm proceedings "Non-committee members are NOT allowed in the room during the deposition. Those are the RULES. NO exceptions made." - Trey Gowdy SC 6/15/2015
"They crashed the party". - Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif) The party? Did Gowdy ever refer to hearings as parties? Did the Republicans ever refer to the Clinton impeachment as a party? Genuinely curious if this sort of thing is normally called a party. If not, where is the media outrage in trivializing this as a party or is that the truth?
Ha, ha, ha. Shifty Schift suspended the hearings. The Repubs should just stage a sit down strike until the Dems agree to be transparent in the proceedings. The proceedings against Nixon and Clinton were public. Why isn't this?
Wait...you defended Trump's use of the "lynching" colloquialism yesterday. The hypocrisy is reaching tsunami proportions.
I'm not following you, but that is typical for what you post. Even if you explain it, I probably won't get it, and I'm not going to try to explain my comment to you.
Speaking of Gowdy...lets go back to the Benghazi investigation. Do the Democratic criticisms of Gowdy and the Republicans handling of the investigation sound familiar?
The difference is that the republicans didn't have a Schiff-like character that is deliberately leaking to the press in order to affect public opinion. If it's secret let's keep it that way. What we're seeing here from the democrats is an absolute disgrace and no amount of "whataboutism" from you will change that.
Let me try it this way. That would be a consistent position. To defend Trump yet criticize this Democrat rep is not just pure tribalism but is hypocritical. It's not a surprise you don't recognize it nor choose to discuss it. It is what it is.
let me get this straight. You are wanting us to believe Schiff over Trump? You people are always accusing Trump of lying but never have real examples. Schiff is the biggest liar in politics. He doesn’t even care that everyone knows he’s the biggest liar. He actually said “we have hard proof that Trump colluding with Russian but can’t talk about it while it’s under investigation.” Trump was proven right. Why would anybody believe anything Schiff says. I love how this is shaking out ....... again. Just accuse Trump now and look like a moron later. This happens all the time. Democrats have a whistle blower that actually wasn’t there but knows what Trump said to the Ukrainian leaders that’s a quid pro quo. Democrats: WE DEMAND THE PHONE TRANSCRIPTS!!! WE WANT TRANSPARENCY Trump: Ok here you go! Democrats: Uh......
