Democrats and Republicans have such opposite spins on Trump's call with the Ukrainian president it's like they read 2 different transcripts
- Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday had wildly different reactions to a memo documenting a July 25 call between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president-elect.
- Democrats argued that Trump was clearly pressuring the foreign leader to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, for Trump's own political gain.
- Republicans, meanwhile, said the call revealed no explicit threat or "quid pro quo" arrangement to withhold foreign aid unless Ukraine investigates Biden.
- Democrats argued back that the memo wasn't a complete transcript of the call and may have omitted certain details. They also said a quid pro quo wasn't the only type of conduct that merited impeachment.
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The White House released a memo on Wednesday documenting a call between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president - but Democrats and Republicans appear to have wildly different interpretations of what went down in that conversation.
The memo revealed that Trump pressed then Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
The Trump administration has accused the former vice president of trying to stifle an investigation into a gas company linked to Hunter Biden by urging Ukraine to oust a prosecutor investigating the firm.
"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 [William Barr] would be great," Trump told Zelensky in the July 25 call. "Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me."
The call also occurred just days after the Trump administration withheld nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine, leading Democrats and Trump critics to accuse the president of attempting to broker a quid pro quo agreement with the foreign leader.
The reactions to the memo after it was released on Wednesday varied wildly between the two parties - with Democrats instantly characterizing it as a "smoking gun" that proved Trump urged a foreign leader to investigate a rival for his own political gain. Republicans, meanwhile, insisted that the call was noncontroversial, and revealed no "quid pro quo."
Democrats say the memo clearly shows wrongdoing
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced an impeachment inquiry into Trump on Tuesday, had already sought to make clear that a potential quid pro quo agreement wasn't the only type of conduct that merited impeachment.
"If the president brings up, he wants them to investigate something of his political opponent, that is self-evident that it is not right. We don't ask foreign governments to help us in our elections," Pelosi during a talk at the Atlantic Festival on Tuesday. "There is no requirement there be a quid pro quo in the conversation."
"This 'transcript' itself is a smoking gun," Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted. "If this is the version of events the president's team thinks is most favorable, he is in very deep jeopardy. We need to see the full whistleblower complaint and the administration needs to follow the law. Now."
Pelosi said in a statement that the memo proves that Trump "engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity of our elections."
She continued: "It is not part of his job to use taxpayer money to shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign. Either the President does not know the weight of his words or he does not care about ethics or his constitutional responsibilities."
The Democratic National Committee noted that the call memo wasn't a full transcript and "doesn't show the full conversation," but said even if information was omitted, the memo still showed wrongdoing.
Republicans said the memo was a nothingburger
The Trump administration released its own spin of the situation on Wednesday (and accidentally sent its talking points to House Democrats).
The White House's arguments highlighted the fact that US aid to Ukraine was not blatantly dangled as an exchange for investigating the Bidens.
"Let's be clear, there was no quid pro quo for Ukraine to get US aid in exchange for looking into Biden or his son," the talking points said.
Trump's allies apparently got the message, and took to social media and news outlets on Wednesday to parrot the notion that no quid pro quo arrangement occurred.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a prominent Trump defender, tweeted that he was "underwhelmed" by the Trump-Zelensky call memo.
"Wow. Impeachment over this? What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger," he wrote. "Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President @realDonaldTrump."
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also said the call memo "reveals no illegal quid pro quo," and lambasted Democrats for fixating on the issue.
"Since the day President Trump was elected, congressional Democrats have been working to find any reason under the sun to impeach the president and undo the results of the last election," he said in a statement. "First, it was Mueller, then the Mueller report found no collusion. Now it's Ukraine. Next month, it will be something else."
Fox News, Trump's favored media network, also used similar language to argue that Trump didn't appear to be coercing Zelensky into the investigation.
"I don't see a tie to the money, the funding, the aid, specifically," anchor Bret Baier said on-air Wednesday. "To the president's point, you don't see a direct quid pro quo in the language, tying this to that."
Trump later quoted Baier in a tweet.
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