President Trump told House Republicans that he made his now infamous phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the urging of Energy Secretary Rick Perry — a call Trump claimed he didn’t even want to make.
Behind the scenes: Trump made these comments during a conference call with House members on Friday, according to 3 sources on the call.
– Per the sources, Trump rattled off the same things he has been saying publicly — that his call with Zelensky was “perfect”and he did nothing wrong.
– But he then threw Perry into the mix and said something to the effect of: “Not a lot of people know this but, I didn’t even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquified natural gas] plant,” one source said, recalling the president’s comments. 2 other sources confirmed the first source’s recollection.
Why it matters: The president’s remarks suggest he may be seeking to distance himself from responsibility or recast the pretext for the call. White House officials did not respond to requests for comment.
– Another source on the call said Trump added that “more of this will be coming out in the next few days” — referring to Perry.
Worth noting: Text messages released this week between Trump administration officials and Andrey Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky, suggest that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was a primary advocate for arranging the call.
– There is no mention in the text messages of Perry playing a role in making this call happen.
– Zelensky talks about buying American oil and wanting to work with the U.S. on energy independence, but Perry and LNG are not discussed in the 5-page memo of the Trump-Zelensky call released by the White House.
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- Discussion
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Scoop: Trump pins Ukraine call on Energy Secretary Rick Perryhttps://t.co/DFCHFvMtTa
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) October 5, 2019The arguments on Ukraine right now – there was no quid pro quo, we always trade x for y, we were just fighting corruption, the phone call was perfect, Rick Perry made me do it – are really stair steps of dumbness.
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) October 6, 2019
Also Trump can’t plausibly blame Perry for what he said on the call, which is the heart of the issue https://t.co/i19KmHRFLN
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) October 5, 2019
Obviously untrue, but one more indication of how suddenly scared Trump is https://t.co/VigdXVxtlI
— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 5, 2019
The president is a small, unhinged venal man. https://t.co/meuAsawxZ9
— David French (@DavidAFrench) October 5, 2019
Perry being prepped for a ground-up tutorial on bus mechanics. https://t.co/XKfmrVx7YF
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) October 5, 2019
More typical Trump. When the stock market falls, he blames the fed. Now that he’s in trouble over the Ukraine, he blames Rick Perry. There always has to be a scapegoat upon which Trump has to pin his failures and misdeeds.
His fans eat it up without question, but even if Trump survives this impeachment effort, he is going to have a problem convincing other voters. And he is going to need the other voters to win.
Trump has told so many lies he cant kerp them straight. His stories change by the hour. Trump’s fans dont notice, but the rest of us do. Up till now, Trump has managed to finesse his way out of every jam, but I don’t think he can do that now.
This has to be a joke right?
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