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Mick Mulvaney just told House investigators everything they need to know about Trump and Ukraine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/mick-mulvaney-just-told-house-investigators-
Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, speaks during a news conference in the press briefing room of the White House on Thursday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
By Editorial Board
Oct. 17, 2019 at 4:17 p.m. EDT
PRESIDENT TRUMP may be formally refusing to cooperate with a congressional impeachment inquiry, but on Thursday his acting chief of staff revealed all that House investigators need to know in order to determine whether Mr. Trump abused his oath of office.
Yes, Mick Mulvaney said, Mr. Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine, money that had been appropriated by Congress and was desperately needed to resist Russian aggression, in order to induce the government of Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a conspiracy theory about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 election. In other words, the president was using U.S. aid as leverage to advance his personal political agenda.
“We do that all the time with foreign policy,” Mr. Mulvaney said with stunning brazenness. “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There is going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
The chief of staff’s declaration represented an about-face in the White House defense on the Ukraine affair. Until now, Mr. Trump’s main argument has been that the whistleblower who described his July 25 phone call with Mr. Zelensky and his subordination of U.S. diplomacy to his reelection campaign had gotten it all wrong: There was no quid pro quo. But testimony to Congress by half a dozen present and former State Department and White House officials, and a rough transcript of the phone call, have fully confirmed the whistleblower’s memo.
The new defense outlined by Mr. Mulvaney: Okay, we did it. So what?
The chief of staff argued that every administration seeks concessions from foreign governments in exchange for aid or meetings with the president. That’s true — but the difference here is that Mr. Trump was demanding help for his personal political cause, not for the United States. In the phone call with Mr. Zelensky, which took place a week after he suspended $391 million in military aid, Mr. Trump asked for an investigation of the far-fetched theory that the DNC server hacked by Russia had somehow been spirited away to Ukraine.
Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, speaks during a news conference in the press briefing room of the White House on Thursday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
By Editorial Board
Oct. 17, 2019 at 4:17 p.m. EDT
PRESIDENT TRUMP may be formally refusing to cooperate with a congressional impeachment inquiry, but on Thursday his acting chief of staff revealed all that House investigators need to know in order to determine whether Mr. Trump abused his oath of office.
Yes, Mick Mulvaney said, Mr. Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine, money that had been appropriated by Congress and was desperately needed to resist Russian aggression, in order to induce the government of Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a conspiracy theory about the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 election. In other words, the president was using U.S. aid as leverage to advance his personal political agenda.
“We do that all the time with foreign policy,” Mr. Mulvaney said with stunning brazenness. “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There is going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
The chief of staff’s declaration represented an about-face in the White House defense on the Ukraine affair. Until now, Mr. Trump’s main argument has been that the whistleblower who described his July 25 phone call with Mr. Zelensky and his subordination of U.S. diplomacy to his reelection campaign had gotten it all wrong: There was no quid pro quo. But testimony to Congress by half a dozen present and former State Department and White House officials, and a rough transcript of the phone call, have fully confirmed the whistleblower’s memo.
The new defense outlined by Mr. Mulvaney: Okay, we did it. So what?
The chief of staff argued that every administration seeks concessions from foreign governments in exchange for aid or meetings with the president. That’s true — but the difference here is that Mr. Trump was demanding help for his personal political cause, not for the United States. In the phone call with Mr. Zelensky, which took place a week after he suspended $391 million in military aid, Mr. Trump asked for an investigation of the far-fetched theory that the DNC server hacked by Russia had somehow been spirited away to Ukraine.
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