As Congress examined the whistle blower’s report regarding President Donald Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a day after the official transcript was released by the Trump administration, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) made up his own version of the call and read it before Congress.
Schiff used colorful language to depict quid pro quo in the conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky, using virtually no verbiage from the actual transcript released yesterday.
According to Schiff, President Trump essentially said “We’ve been very good to your country, very good, no other country has done as much as we have, but you know what? I don’t see much reciprocity here.”
He continued, claiming to paraphrase the president, “I hear what you want, I have a favor I want from you though. And I’m going to say this only 7 times so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it.”
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“On this, and on that, I’m going to put you in touch with people, not just any people, I’m going to put you in touch with the Attorney General of the United States, my Attorney General Bill Barr,” Schiff continued, creating a fictitious version of events, “He’s got the whole weight of the American law enforcement behind him, and I’m going to put you in touch with Rudy, you’re going to love him, trust me.”
Schiff finally concluded his fictitious read, “You know what I’m asking, and so I’m only going to say this in a few more times, in a few more ways, and by the way don’t call me again, I’ll call you when you’ve done what I’ve asked.”
Stunning that while Congress is parsing documents and quotes in an impeachment investigation, @RepAdamSchiff thought making up his own version of the call for theatrical effect was a good idea. pic.twitter.com/cdas3pVGeA
— Retired Orrin G. Hatch (@RetiredOrrin) September 26, 2019
Of course, Schiff’s phony version of events would only hold up had the official transcript of the call not been released as it was yesterday.
As National File reported yesterday, the transcript reveals nothing that could possibly be construed as quid pro quo.
Instead, President Trump sought to have President Zelensky help the United States learn the truth about possible foreign interference in the 2016 election related to former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who allegedly participated in a corruption scandal that saw the former vice president force Ukraine to fire those investigating.
The conversation moved on to discussing the prosecutor. “I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down, and that’s really unfair,” President Trump told Zelenskyy:
A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United states, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that.
President Trump then brought up the incident with Biden:
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.
President Zelenskyy said that a new prosecutor, who would be “100% my person” would be appointed in September:
He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case.
It is unknown why Schiff thought Congress would allow him to create a version of events that is entirely contrary to reality, but multiple members of Congress called the California representative out for his ludicrous exaggeration of events.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York) poignantly told Congress, “I’m not going to improvise for parody purposes” when reading from the report.
Rep. Stefanik throws shade at Schiff for his fake opening remarkshttps://t.co/6ILVFbVIKz pic.twitter.com/W9lYQsifHJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 26, 2019
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) lamented, “I think it’s a shame that we started off this hearing with fictional remarks,” adding, “Putting words into it that did not exist, that are not in the transcript.”
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He also lamented that millions of Americans will believe Schiff’s phony conversation after it is disseminated in the mainstream media.
“I’m also glad to know that many Americans have seen this movie too many times, and they're tired of it.” –@RepBradWenstrup pic.twitter.com/eMPJg3CIKl
— GOP (@GOP) September 26, 2019
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) told Congress that Democrats are seeking to impeach President Trump for lawful conduct, and that the transcript represents the United States seeking help from Ukraine in an ongoing legal investigation.
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1177245678763986945
All Congressional Republicans seem to agree that Democrats will likely continue to double down on efforts to obfuscate and misrepresent the transcript in a thinly veiled effort to besmirch and eventually impeach President Trump.
