Republicans Rally Behind Trump: ‘Absolutely ZERO Grounds for Impeachment’

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Hannah Bleau Knudsen

Several Republican lawmakers reacted to the release of President Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pointing out that there are “ZERO grounds for impeachment” based on the content of the conversation.

Trump authorized the “complete, fully declassified and unredacted transcript” of the conversation on Tuesday, and it was released subsequently on Wednesday.

“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!” Trump previewed. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!”

The transcript shows Trump asking Zelensky to “find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike”– a reference to ongoing questions surrounding election meddling and hacking efforts.

The transcript reads:

President Donald Trump: 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. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… 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 with 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.

President Zelensky: Yes it is. very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to·open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United· States and Ukraine.· For that·purpose, I just recalled our.ambassador from the United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer.

Hunter Biden was brought up after the fact:

Trump: … I just want to let you know that’s 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.

Republican lawmakers across the board agree that there is no smoking gun and “zero” grounds for impeachment.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said he is “incensed by the Fake News media and Socialist Democrats’ distortion of truth” after reading the full transcript of Trump’s conversation and urged Americans to read it for themselves.

He outlined some “noteworthy observations”:

First, President Trump asked about Ukraine investigating “Crowdstrike” (an investigation unrelated to Biden). It was Ukraine President Zelenskyy, not President Trump, who first brought up investigations beyond “Crowdstrike. Only thereafter did President Trump mention then-Vice President Joe Biden’s possible illegal interference in a Ukraine prosecutor’s investigation of Biden’s son (who was allegedly involved in corrupt practices and may very well have been prosecuted for corruption but for then-Vice President Biden’s monetary threats, coercion and intimidation of Ukraine’s political leadership).

Second, in no way, shape or form did President Trump ask Ukraine President Zelenskyy for “campaign help.” There is no request for campaign contributions, campaign volunteers, yard signs or anything else of a campaign nature. Rather, President Trump’s request is very straightforward and an effort to root out and uncover corrupt practices that may (or may not) reach all the way to America’s White House under President Obama and V.P. Biden.

Third, I would hope and encourage every President of the United States to root out and uncover corrupt practices in the United States, or by any American citizen anywhere, particularly when the allegations reach to the highest levels of America’s government— the White House!

Finally, the Fake News Media and Socialist Democrats are engaged in a fake “Russian Collusion Scandal 2.0,” albeit this time involving Ukraine. The Fake News Media and Socialist Democrats should apologize to the American people for their intentional and knowing distortion of the truth. They won’t, of course, because they care more about advancing a hyper-partisan, Socialist, anti-America agenda than they do telling the American people the truth.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) concurred. “I’ve read the transcript in its entirety. It shows that there was no quid pro quo. The Ukrainian President admitted problems with corruption in the country and agreed that the issue at hand warranted looking into further,” he said in a statement.

He continued in part:

The firing of a prosecutor looking into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son following pressure from Mr. Biden himself is worthy of investigation. That a president who ran on an anti-corruption platform would look into this matter is unsurprising and is in both the U.S. and Ukrainian national interest.

For years, Democrats have decried foreign interference in U.S. elections. But this seems to be a one-way street. Democrats are wholly uninterested in looking into past Ukrainian efforts to help former Vice President Biden, as well as the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign, which reportedly used Ukraine to undermine the Trump campaign. That’s not how the rule of law works.

National media attention to only one side of this issue is disappointing even if unsurprising. The Obama administration used the Department of Justice and its intelligence agencies to investigate a political opponent in then-candidate Trump while using foreign government sources to further the investigation. But it’s supposedly unacceptable for the Trump administration to encourage a foreign nation to look into a matter that it was prevented from fully investigating by the previous administration with clear conflicts of interest. That’s not a standard that makes any sense.

“Just read transcript of POTUS’ call w/Ukraine Pres. Absolutely ZERO grounds for impeachment and I agree w/ the President that US-Ukraine should investigate,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) wrote.

“This is absurd how Congressional Dems & many in media are trying to spin this all!” he added.

“In my point of view, to impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-SC) said.

“Wow. Impeachment over this? What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger,” Graham added in a tweet. “Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President @realDonaldTrump.”

“The special counsel wrongfully flipped the legal burden of proof to require President Trump to conclusively determine his innocence. Now Democrats have done the same thing to our national security,” Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) said in a statement.

He continued:

The transcript conclusively determines, despite Democratic promises to the contrary, that there was no quid pro quo. No mention of military aid. No violation of the law. But to conclusively prove his innocence, a classified and privileged conversation between a foreign head of state and our president is now in the public view. In their desire to undo the 2016 election and destroy President Trump, Democrats have today unequivocally and irreparably harmed our national security and compromised an important ally. Instead of forming an impeachment line, Democrats should consider forming an apology line.”

“The transcript of the President’s phone call shows no wrongdoing, “ Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.

“The real scandal here is that Democrats are using this issue to distract from wrongdoing by Vice President Biden and his son as they continue to relitigate the 2016 election and attempt to undo the will of the American people,” he added.

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