The White House has released the transcript of President Trump's phone call with Ukraine's president in an effort to provide transparency as House Democrats accuse Trump of committing a crime worthy of impeachment.
Critics of the impeachment effort say the transcript does not show any evidence of a quid pro quo suggestion by the president. Trump opponents have accused him of withholding aid to Ukraine in order to force the new Ukrainian president to carry out some investigations, but the phone call does not confirm that accusation.
THIS is why @SpeakerPelosi launched impeachment? REALLY?
-No quid pro quo
-No discussion of foreign aidTo top it off, President Trump was asking Ukraine to look into serious and troubling issues regarding foreign interference in American elections.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) September 25, 2019
Charlie Cook, a well-known neutral political analyst, writes that the transcript provides no evidence to help the Democrats in their effort to unseat Trump:
"I don’t Tweet very much but reading transcript has moved me to comment. I was totally underwhelmed by the transcript. After the build-up, it was not much more inappropriate said than we hear from him in a typical week. This will not move malleable voters."
I don’t Tweet very much but reading transcript has moved me to comment. I was totally underwhelmed by the transcript. After the build-up, it was not much more inappropriate said than we hear from him in a typical week. This will not move malleable voters.
— Charlie Cook (@CharlieCookDC) September 25, 2019
The transcript shows Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election, specifically asking if a Democratic server that Russia hacked may have been based in Ukraine.
He also asks the president to consider looking into reports that former Vice President Joe Biden may have stepped in to quash a Ukrainian investigation into Biden's son who was working at a Ukrainian energy company.
Here are a few of the top quotes from President Trump during the phone call, related the Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and Joe Biden's involvement with Ukraine, according to the transcript:
"I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation .. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible.
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. … It sounds horrible to me."
You can read the entire document, as provided by the White House, by clicking HERE.
CBN News will offer analysis on the Trump transcript on today's Faith Nation program on the CBN News Channel.
Did you know?
God is everywhere—even in the news. That’s why we view every news story through the lens of faith. We are committed to delivering quality independent Christian journalism you can trust. But it takes a lot of hard work, time, and money to do what we do. Help us continue to be a voice for truth in the media by supporting CBN News for as little as $1.
Support CBN News
