As promised, the White House released a transcript on Wednesday of President Trump’s phone call in July with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky detailing that he sought a review of former vice president Joe Biden’s family dealings in the country, however, the document does not show that President Trump leveraged military aid as part of a quid pro quo, debunking what Democrats claimed.
Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), however, roasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “impeachment effort” after she “misled the country” and “misstated the law” during her press conference Tuesday. Pelosi’s claims were based upon a whistleblower that was not even on the phone call with the President.
“The transcript has now been released and the phone conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky and the evidence is clear. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has been functionally ‘catfished’ into a politically fatal ‘impeachment proceeding’ based on ‘rumors’, … ‘faulty evidence’,… and ‘a blood lust for the President politically, that does not serve our nation well,'” Rep. Gaetz explained.
He proceeded to name the high points that the media led the public to believe: “There is no quid pro quo between President Trump and President Zelensky for anything, much less military aid. There is no ‘8 times of reference to Joe Biden’. I think the Wall Street Journal will have a good deal of retracting to do today.”
“And in fact, President Zelenksy, he himself, identifies the rooting out of corruption as the reason for his election. As early on in the conversation between President Trump and President Zelensky, President Zelensky says ‘We here in the Ukraine are trying to ‘drain the swamp’, much in the way you are working to ‘drain the swamp’ in the United States of America. This wasn’t a call about leverage, … [or] threats, this was a mutually appreciative and mutually laudatory call between two leaders who are trying to clean up some of the garbage in their respective countries that has polluted politics,” Gaetz said.
He noted that President Trump did “ask for a favor”, but said that the favor is on behalf of our nation. “The favor we seek is cooperation with the Zelenksy government and Attorney General Bill Barr as we work to determine what activities in the Ukraine may have been in any way involved in the 2016, not t2020, but in the 2016 efforts to interfere with the United States election. The President even references ‘Crowd Strike’ attempting to get to the bottom of these improper actions, which again, may have emanated in the Ukraine,” he stated. (Continued Below)
“Zelensky ran against corruption and Gaetz said that it would “only be appropriate in a conversation about that election victory, they would discuss and reference what our obvious mutual goals between the United States and the Ukraine to have the world safer for democracy,” the Florida Congressman continued.
He also proclaimed that President Trump’s attorney, Rudy Guiliani “has every right to go to the Ukraine and try to ascertain whether or not activities in that country were harming his client as a result of the corrupt connections, which may have existed, between the DNC and some elements in Ukraine.”
“I feel like we’ve been here before! Gaetz declared. “House Democrats told us it was all about collusion. We had to wait for the Mueller report but when the Mueller report falls flat on collusion, then it’s all about obstruction of justice– until Robert Mueller comes and testifies and that falls flat. Then, it’s all about abuse of power until the Democrats go to court and are unable to make the case in court that there’s been an abuse of power. And now, low and behold, it’s all about the Ukraine!” Gaetz expressed. (Continued Below)
Gaetz said that he saw “this movie as it relates to Russia” and noted that he “didn’t like it very much”, adding that he doubts he is going to enjoy the “cheap Ukrainian knockoff.”
“The Speaker has embraced these concerns and I fear that her embrace of impeachment does great damage to the House of Representatives, [be]cause there may be a time where we have to solemnly exercise our impeachment powers, because there are true crime or corruption and the Speaker’s actions have ’embarrassed’ the United States Congress and they harm our entire country,” he continued.
Gaetz pointed out that in the phone call, President Zelensky made a promise that he will conduct an investigation into corruption. “It’s not only a promise he made to President Trump but that he made to his own citizens. And in that promise, President Zelensky said that any investigation will be both open and candid … of corruption, of election meddling,” Gaetz said.
“I sure would like to see that level of candidness and openness in our House of Representatives and certainly, my greatest hope is that the Attorney General’s investigation into the corrupt origins of the efforts to smear the President of the United States will be exposed and those responsible will go to jail! That is how we restore honor to this House, … how we solve and heal some of the great wounds that were inflicted upon this body by the Speaker yesterday,” he conveyed.
“Maybe next time, the radical left will wait for the facts before engaging in a reflexive, fact-free impeachment,” Gaetz recommended. (Videos Below)
Gaetz’ full remarks on the House floor after the release of the transcript:
Rep. Gaetz didn’t stop there as he ripped Pelosi’s “impeachment hunt” on MSNBC:
