Swalwell: Americans Will Understand Trump Traded ‘Defense Dollars for Dirt’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said during the upcoming public testimony in the House’s impeachment inquiry, American viewers will understand President Donald Trump was trading “defense dollars for dirt.”

He made those comments regarding the administration’s requests for investigating the Bidens with the administration of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Swalwell said, “Defense dollars for dirt. That’s what was going on here. But I think Bill Taylor laid out something, you know, in his transcript, which is important. He said that undoubtedly, without the security assistance, more Ukrainians will die. We’re a very compassionate people.”

He continued, “Even more so sometimes, I thought over the last few weeks, there was concern about the potential genocide of the Kurds by the Turks and that really bothered, you know, Republicans and Democrats. When people start to hear in public that every day, dollars were held up for the Ukrainians, those were Ukrainians who were dying in the eastern part of their country.”

He added, “We are going to put the best case forward. I think the allegation is extortion, essentially. And we are going to put credible witnesses forward. It’s pretty clear that all the arrows point in the direction that the president was leading the scheme. But I think the best case also is a fair case. It’s not just the facts behind the case. The public has to perceive it as the president had his day in court.  And then it’s in the Senate’s court. But all I can do as one of the investigators now is to put forth a fair case.”
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