White House counselor Kellyanne Conway refused to say whether a quid pro quo took place in President Trump’s conversations with Ukrainian leaders about former Vice President Joe Biden.
The cornerstone of the impeachment effort against Trump is that House Democrats believe he withheld military aid from Ukraine unless they agreed to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Conway sidestepped questions about the decision to withhold aid, noting Ukraine got the aid they were promised.
“They have the aid. They’re using the aid,” Conway said.
She claimed that the media stories leaking from impeachment testimonies, such as the testimony from Ambassador Bill Taylor, have been “cherry-picked” by House Democrats to paint a bad picture of the president.
“We have no access to the full testimony because everything’s been done in the dark and in secret,” she said, adding, “That process has been flawed from the beginning.”
Conway said she didn’t know whether Trump withheld aid to push an investigation into Biden but she claimed it wouldn’t matter.
“I don’t know, but I know they’ve got their aid,” Conway said. “Here’s what’s absolutely, unimpeachably true: Ukraine has that aid.”
She noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he did not feel pressured by Trump in the phone call, so there could not be a quid pro quo.
“Where was the quid pro quo?” Conway asked. “President Trump never said to the Ukrainian president, ‘Do this and you’ll get your aid.’ It’s simply not here.”
