The release of the transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not the dud that Trump and his allies have been presenting it to be. It’s very bad news for Trump.
The defense of Trump is that yes, he may have asked a foreign leader to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, but that there was “no quid pro quo.” While at no point did Trump explicitly say, “investigate Biden or else,” Trump does state quite clearly all of the great things that the United States does for Ukraine before transitioning into his asks, among which are that Zelensky investigate Biden.
Reading the full transcript, and understanding the broader context, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Trump was using the power and influence of the U.S. to advance his own political interests rather than the national security interests of the nation. There was not much talk about what Ukraine could do for America’s interests in the region and a lot more talk about what he could do for Trump personally that would benefit him politically.
You can read the full transcript for yourself here, but here’s what jumped out at me.
After Trump congratulates Zelensky on his election victory and they exchange pleasantries, Trump said, “I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are.” After singling out Germany, Trump said, “A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it’s something you want to look at but the United States has been very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.”
After Zelensky agreed, the Ukrainian president also mentions, “We are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.”
Trump immediately follows up by saying, “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.”
So here’s Trump, having emphasized how much great stuff the U.S. does for Ukraine that isn’t reciprocated, now asking for a favor. The first favor has to do with getting the government to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigation into Ukraine’s meddling in the 2016 election.
“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike,” he said. “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 by 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.”
After Zelensky talks about how he does intend to appoint good people and that his assistant already spoke to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who he hopes will visit Ukraine and meet with him, Trump follows up with, “Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, they way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I would ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”
Then Trump says, “The other thing, 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.”
So to recap: Trump explains how much help the U.S. provides Ukraine, and, after Zelensky discusses wanting to purchase weapons, Trump pivots to “a favor” he wants, which starts off with a reference to the Mueller investigation but eventually leads Trump to bring up “the other thing,” which happens to be the investigation of Biden. There are also several references to setting up meetings between Ukrainian officials and his personal lawyer Giuliani, who we know was asking Ukraine to investigate Biden.
Even if Trump doesn’t explicitly say that Ukraine has to investigate Biden, or else, the implication is quite clear in this phone call. The U.S. provides a ton of help, Ukraine wants to purchase weapons, and Trump is asking for a favor in this context. Even if the quid quo pro quo isn’t explicit, it’s heavily implied.
