“The final key to the way I promote is bravado, Trump said, explaining truthful hyperbole. "I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration—and a very effective form of promotion.”
In the hopes that he would appear transparent, Trump threw himself on the mercy of the court, so to speak, and released both a transcript of the July 25th phone call to President Zelensky of Ukraine and the whistleblower complaint, although the latter is still classified and cannot be released to the public. However, the transcript alone is proof the President violated the Constitution and federal law by asking a foreign power to intervene in our election on his behalf.
Keep in mind, Trump stopped a military aid package to Ukraine five days before this phone call, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters, "There is no quid pro quo necessary to betray your country or your oath of office. Even though many read this as a quid pro quo. I'm not concerned whether it is a quid pro quo or not. Ukraine understood what this President wanted."
That said, while Trump didn't come out and say, "I'm bribing you," clearly there was quid pro quo.
Zelensky mentioned that Ukraine is ready to buy more Javelin missiles from the US. Trump responded by saying, "I would like you to do us a favor."
"The United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine," Trump said.
Of course, Zelensky agreed, and told Trump the US is a "much bigger partner" to Ukraine than other European countries. Zelensky has agreed to everything Trump has said during this episode. The very last thing the Ukrainian president wants to do is anger Trump. Trump holds the key to the defense of his country from the ongoing Russian aggression.
Trump had no qualms about using that leverage.
Trump then proceeded to pressure Zelensky for cooperation with his political agenda, urging him to start corruption investigations while stressing the United States’ role in military assistance for Kiev.
Trump rambled on about the 2016 elections, something about a server called Crowdstrike, Robert Mueller, and the former ambassador from the United States, "the woman," Trump said. Finally, he got down to hard cases. "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," Trump said.
In
addition, Trump urged Zelensky to work with Attorney General William P. Barr on potential corruption investigations connected to former Vice President Biden, his son, Hunter, and an unsubstantiated theory about stolen Democratic emails in 2016.
"Trump’s suggestion that American law enforcement be directly involved and in contact with Ukraine’s government marks the first evidence that the president personally sought to harness the power of the United States government to further a politically motivated investigation," the New York
Times.