A House Republican rejected claims from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney that the press misconstrued his comments about a Trump-Ukraine quid pro quo.
Mulvaney stunned Trump’s allies by telling reporters on Thursday that Trump delayed the release of aid money in part to convince Ukrainian officials to investigate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Hours later, though, Mulvaney walked back the comments. “There was never any connection between the funds and the Ukrainians doing anything with the server — this was made explicitly obvious by the fact that the aid money was delivered without any action on the part of the Ukrainians regarding the server,” Mulvaney said.
But Rep. Francis Rooney, a Florida Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, didn’t buy the retraction.
“It’s not an Etch a Sketch,” Rooney told reporters. “You know, this is a funny business. How in life can you do those kinds of things when you’ve just said it right there on national TV. What is a walkback? I tell you what, I’ve drilled some oil wells I’d like to walk back, dry holes.”
Rooney, who sits on one of three congressional committees involved in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry, thinks Mulvaney’s comments to reporters earlier in the day show what he really believes.
“The only thing I can assume is he meant what he had to say, that there was a quid pro quo on this stuff,” Rooney said.
