Former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, who played a key role in the first impeachment saga, is calling on the Biden administration to step up support to Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The biggest mistake we could make would be to take our foot off the gas when it comes to supporting him because you couldn’t ask any more from a foreign leader,” said Gordon Sondland.
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In an interview, he added, “They haven’t asked for one U.S. soldier to get killed. They’re doing it all themselves. Zelensky walks around with bullets flying with a flak jacket on. Guy’s got big balls, and you should support him.”
What’s more, he pushed for the EU and NATO to embrace Ukraine in a sign of support for the nation’s effort to stop Russia’s war on it. “They should have a five-year window, get your act together once the war is over, get qualified, otherwise, you get kicked out,” reasoned Sondland in Washington to promote his book, The Envoy: Mastering the Art of Diplomacy with Trump and the World.
In his book, he wrote about taking Zelensky and Ukraine under his wing, even though the country is not part of the EU. “I like Zelensky. And I want him to know that I want to help him out,” he wrote about meeting the new president at his 2019 inauguration, which was cheered by Washington.
Sondland was a nexus between the White House and Zelensky, and while he wasn’t on the infamous phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president that led to the first impeachment vote, he was key in the relationship and getting Zelensky and Trump to meet.
Sondland testified before the impeachment committee on the call, however, and said there was no demand to Ukraine other than it publicly state it planned to reopen a financial investigation into Burisma energy that was tied to Hunter Biden.
“What I said in my testimony was that Trump wanted the Ukrainians to resume an old investigation that had been going on under the last president, and he wanted it to happen again. The Ukrainians said, ‘Okay.’ Trump said, ‘Not so fast. I want you to make a public statement that you will do that because I don’t believe you.’ And they said, ‘Okay.’”
Trump, he added, said, “I don’t care. Make a press conference, give an interview, just be on the record that you will restart the investigation. When I see or read that, I will then invite you to Washington and you can come to have a meeting.’ That was it. There was no discussion about Burisma. There was no discussion about Hunter Biden, none of that,” said Sondland in the interview.
In fact, Sondland wrote that he didn’t even hear about the call until it became public. Not only was it misportrayed, but he also said the call was just a way to get at Trump, which ultimately worked because it was a story fed by insider enemies of the administration.
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“In the end, I truly believe the whole Ukraine issue was a red herring. This was nothing more than a hatchet job, an attempt to entrap various people one by one in a chain that led up to the president. To generate enough press froth and fervor to whip the country into a state where they could push through an impeachment of President Trump,” he wrote.
He conceded he was annoyed that U.S. security aid was being held up by Trump and called the president to ask what the problem was.
“In the end, given the many versions of speculation that have been circulating about the security aid, I call President Trump. I ask directly, ‘What do you want from Ukraine?’ The president responds, ‘Nothing. There is no quid pro quo.’ He repeats ‘no quid pro quo’ multiple times. It is a very short call,” wrote the former ambassador.
