House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff attempted to pressure former United States Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker into testifying that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter because of Trump’s “threat” to withold U.S. military aid to Ukraine, the Washington Examiner reported. According to Volker, Ukrainian officials never actually felt pressured because they never even knew that the aid was being withheld. “When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff’s characterization of events, Schiff said, ‘Ambassador, you’re making this much more complicated than it has to be.'”
Democrats have been hinging their impeachment push on the claim that there was a quid pro quo—specifically, that Trump threatened to withhold military aid unless they investigated Joe Biden and his son, which, as the transcript proved, didn’t happen. According to this report, Adam Schiff desperately wants anyone he interviews to back up what he wants to believe.
The exchange reveals just how desperate Schiff was to get the politically convenient narrative he wanted instead of the truth.
[Schiff] asked Volker whether he would agree that “no President of the United States should ever ask a foreign leader to help intervene in a U.S. election.”
“I agree with that,” said Volker.
“And that would be particularly egregious if it was done in the context of withholding foreign assistance?” Schiff continued.
Volker balked. “We’re getting now into, you know, a conflation of these things that I didn’t think was actually there.”
Schiff wanted Volker to agree that “if it’s inappropriate for a president to seek foreign help in a U.S. election, it would be doubly so if a president was doing that at a time when the United States was withholding military support from the country.”
Again, Volker did not agree. “I can’t really speak to that,” he said. “My understanding of the security assistance issue is — ”
Schiff interrupted. “Why can’t you speak to that, ambassador? You’re a career diplomat. You can understand the enormous leverage that a president would have while withholding military support from an ally at war with Russia. You can understand just how significant that would be, correct?”
Volker tried to go along without actually agreeing. “I can understand that that would be significant,” he said.
Schiff persisted. “And when that suspension of aid became known to that country, to Ukraine, it would be all the more weighty to consider what the president had asked of them, wouldn’t it?”
“So again, congressman, I don’t believe — ” Volker began.
“It’s a pretty straightforward question,” Schiff said.
“But I don’t believe the Ukrainians were aware that the assistance was being held up — ”
“They became aware of it,” Schiff said.
“They became aware later, but I don’t believe they were aware at the time, so there was no leverage implied,” Volker said.
Schiff’s handling of the impeachment nonsense has already come under scrutiny multiple times. Between this, his fabricating Trump quotes during a congressional hearing last month and his dishonesty about the contact he had with the so-called whistleblower, Schiff’s credibility has taken a lot of heavy hits recently. How much longer is this sham going to continue?
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