No quid pro quo plus absolute right
Common Dreams explains about the texts:
House Democrats Thursday night released a trove of explosive text exchanges between top U.S. diplomats that provides a closer look into U.S. President Donald Trump’s months-long effort to pressure Ukraine’s leader to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
The text messages, provided to House committees by then special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, show that the Trump administration attempted to use a possible meeting between the U.S. president and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure Kyiv to launch an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.
You want Javelin missiles? Give us dirt on Biden. You want a meeting? Give us dirt on Biden.
The messages also showed Bill Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, raising alarm about Trump’s attempt to withhold aid to Ukraine for electoral purposes.
“Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” Taylor asked Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on Sept. 1, before the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s call with Zelensky went public.
Sondland replied simply, “Call me.”
Meaning: don’t leave a trail of text messages.
[Updating to add: Taylor is a career diplomat; Sonderland is a hotel tycoon who gave $1 million to Trump’s campaign and was then – entirely coincidentally I’m sure – made ambassador to the EU. Taylor is a civil servant; Sonderland is a hack. Taylor is non-partisan; Sonderland is a trumpy hack.]
Eight days later, Taylor wrote to Volker and Sondland, “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Jake Tapper interprets that as deliberately leaving a trail:
On Sept 9 in the midst of another conversation with Sondland, Taylor — seemingly trying to establish a paper trail — texts: “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Trump on the other hand claims he has “the absolute right” to do that and anything else that pops into his festering head.
“Sondland taking five hours to respond, talking to Trump, and then replying ‘no quid pro quo’ shows 1) they knew what they were doing 2) knew it was wrong 3) settled on the ‘no quid pro quo’ defense before it ever became public,” wrote MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes.
It seems like a pretty feeble defense when they spell out the quid pro quo multiple times. But at least now we know why Trump keeps saying robotically “no ‘quid. pro. quo’.” It’s what they told him to say.
Observers said the text messages thoroughly undermine Trump’s claim that he was not seeking a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
“These Kurt Volker text messages are FILLED to the BRIM with quid pro quo,” said Brookings Institution fellow Scott Anderson. “I never expected anything this explicit in writing. It’s truly astounding.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) directed a tweet at Trump’s Republican defenders.
“If you’re a Republican who hung your hat on ‘no quid pro quo!’, what do you do tomorrow?” Murphy wrote. “The texts make 100 percent clear: 1. Our top diplomat in Kiev says there was an “investigation for aid” quid pro quo. 2. Everyone knew there was a ‘investigation for meeting’ quid pro quo.”
But Trump says there was no, so who ya gonna believe, huh?
As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!
He likes to talk about his “absolute right” to do this or that, which tells us a lot about him. It’s not normal for presidents to yammer about their absolute right to do this or that, even though we know some of them believe that, like Nixon and Bush 2 for instance.
Keep breathing.
Note who’s on those texts:
Taylor was the senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.
Volker was a special envoy to Ukraine.
So far, so good. These are the folks who should be discussing relations with Ukraine. But who, exactly, was Gordon Sondland? U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. WTF? Ukraine is not in the EU. Why was he involved? Because he was a Trump loyalist and campaign donor who Trump trusted to get the dirty work done.
Yes. Thank you. I didn’t get that straight until after posting…in fact I should update the post.
Here’s more on some of the key players involved.
For what it’s worth, I agree with what seems to be the emerging consensus interpretation of these texts:
— Taylor was uncomfortable with what was going on, and was intentionally creating a record
— Sondland picked up on what Taylor was doing and tried to salvage it
— Volker is harder to get a read on, but my current interpretation is that he was (1) a loyal footsoldier willing to carry out these crimes; and (2) too fucking dumb to avoid creating a discoverable record of said crimes.
Salvage? Is that a brain-freeze for “block” or “sabotage”?
Also: how confusing is it that both of them are ambassadors?! I don’t understand this system whereby ambassadors can be civil servants or political hacks.
No, I meant “salvage,” as in “Sondland realized that Taylor was creating a record of a crime, and tried to make the best of the situation by muddying the record with his denial before closing down the conversation.” Perhaps not the best word choice — your suggestions are probably clearer. I think the five-hour delay in Sondland’s response wasn’t because he was sleeping; I think he was strategizing and possibly consulting others on how to put the best face on the conversation.
Having read this account of Volker’s testimony, I would slightly revise my opinion of Volker. I don’t think he was a “loyal footsoldier,” more of a reluctant accomplice who didn’t have the backbone to stand up to his bosses. I get the impression that Volker kind of played “good cop” with the Ukrainians to Guiliani’s “bad cop,” not necessarily as a tactic but as a natural reflection of his position. Volker may not have been particularly interested in getting the Ukraine to smear Biden, but he correctly told the Ukrainians that the way to make Trump happy was to make Giuliani happy, and guess what Giuliani wants….
Got it. It wasn’t the “salvage” that was an issue but the “it” – not what Sondland was doing but the record. Wording is hard. Now to follow that link to Volker’s testimony…