Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent on Wednesday directly contradicted one of the key talking points President Trump’s defenders have made on social media for two months. Despite those attempted defenses, Kent said, Trump’s pressure on Ukraine was absolutely not of the same sort that former Vice President Joe Biden used to force the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor seen as corrupt.
Trump, of course, is accused, with plenty of corroboration, of refusing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or to release legally mandated U.S. military assistance to Ukraine unless the government announced investigations into Biden. Biden, meanwhile, not only admitted but boasted about conditioning certain loan guarantees to Ukraine on the latter’s firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
