On Monday, House Republicans released their report on the Democrats’ impeachment evidence, which completely debunks the Democrats’ narrative. “Democrats in the House of Representatives have been working to impeach President Trump since his election,” it says in their executive summary. “Democrats introduced four separate resolutions in 2017 and 2018 seeking to impeach President Trump. In January 2019, on their first day in power, House Democrats again introduced articles of impeachment.” According to House Republicans, the evidence presented by the Democrats failed to prove their allegations, and “none of the Democrats’ witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor.”
In the end, there were two people involved in the phone call where the alleged quid pro quo occurred: President Trump and President Zelensky. Both of them have repeatedly denied there was any quid pro quo, and Lt. Col. Vindman testified that Trump told him that he didn’t want anything from Zelensky. The report notes that Trump’s hesitation about foreign aid is completely understandable considering his longstanding concerns about corruption and the need for our allies to shoulder more of the financial burden–he literally campaigned on this issue. Unlike Barack Obama, President Trump actually provided Ukraine with the lethal aid they needed to address the threat of Russia.
It is also clear from the evidence that the whistleblower’s “complaint did not accurately reflect the tone and substance of the phone call,” and Democrats relied on hearsay and second-hand interpretation of biased sources. The whistleblower’s complaint also got key details of the call incorrect.
The National Security Council also saw nothing wrong with the call.
What about Ambassador Yovanovicth? Let’s not forget, she testified that her being removed from her position didn’t impede her career with the State Department. She was scheduled to leave her post a few weeks later anyway, and she’d even been planning to retire. The Republicans’ report also notes that President Trump “likely had concerns about Ambassador Yovanovitch’s ability to represent him in Ukraine.”
The report also acknowledges that Trump was in the right to raise questions about Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma, and Ukrainian efforts to influence the 2016 election. “As far back as 2015, the Obama State Department had concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Ukrainian anti-corruption activists noted concerns as well,” the report explained. They also note that there is publicly available evidence showing how “senior Ukrainian government officials sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in opposition to President Trump’s candidacy, and that some in the Ukrainian embassy in Washington worked with a Democrat operative to achieve that goal.” Democrats dismiss these as conspiracy theories, but the evidence is there.
“The Democrats’ case rests almost entirely on hearsay, presumption, and emotion. Where there are ambiguous facts, the Democrats interpret them in a light most unfavorable to the President,” they write in their conclusion. “The Democrats also flatly disregard any perception of potential wrongdoing with respect to Hunter Biden’s presence on the board of Burisma Holdings or Ukrainian influence in the 2016 election. ”
There’s a lot more covered in the report, which you can read in its entirety below:
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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