Shortly after Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced the Democrats’ two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, the president responded with a blockbuster tweet demolishing the central claim in the impeachment narrative.
Nadler explained that Democrats were impeaching Trump for “abuse of power.” He accused the president of having “solicited and pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential election, thus damaging our national security, undermining the integrity of the next election, and violating his oath to the American people.”
Trump responded to this directly.
“Nadler just said that I ‘pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 Election.’ Ridiculous, and he know that it is not true. Both the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said, many times, that there ‘WAS NO PRESSURE.’ Nadler and the Dems know this, but refuse to acknowledge!”
Nadler just said that I “pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 Election.” Ridiculous, and he knows that is not true. Both the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said, many times, that there “WAS NO PRESSURE.” Nadler and the Dems know this, but refuse to acknowledge!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Indeed, shortly after Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “nobody pushed me” on the July 25 call. Zelensky later insisted that there was “no quid pro quo” regarding an alleged exchange of U.S. cash for politically-motivated investigations into Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
In September, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said, “I think there was no pressure” on Zelensky in the call.
While Trump did hold up military funding for Ukraine after Congress had approved it, he appears to have done so because he was suspicious of foreign aid and because he did not yet trust the incoming Ukrainian president. Trump released the funding after many meetings between Trump officials and Zelensky’s administration — and without any public announcement into investigations of Hunter Biden or Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Furthermore, it is arguably in the United States’ interest to ask Ukraine to investigate these matters — the son of an American vice president secured a position on the board of a notoriously corrupt energy company while his father was the Obama administration point person on Ukraine. Furthermore, Joe Biden later pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who happened to have been investigating the company his son worked at — and he threatened to revoke funding for Ukraine if the prosecutor was not fired!
The Democrats are impeaching Trump for applying pressure when there was no pressure. Nadler even tipped his hat to the Trump-Russia collusion narrative while announcing the articles of impeachment! Make no mistake: this impeachment is an effort to kneecap Trump for 2020.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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