Here’s a tick tick for how the day went down in Washington on Wednesday and what to expect on Thursday.
Release of the call log backfired
The White House released a log of a July phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The transcript shows Trump asking Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son – confirming what Democrats have been saying: Trump asked a foreign country to investigate a domestic political opponent.
“One Senate Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said the transcript’s release was a ‘huge mistake’ that the GOP now has to confront and defend,” reported the Washington Post late Thursday.
Trump’s comments in the transcript include his asking the Ukrainian President for “a favor:” “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. … It sounds horrible to me,” Trump says.
On Monday, Trump admitted publicly on TV that he asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Biden.
White House mistakenly emails…Democrats
Many Republicans are spinning like tops
A few GOP Senators — Sens. Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse — are treading carefully, expressing concern about the Trump-Ukraine bombshell. But most are working overtime to defend Trump from what they say is Democrats’ obsession to take him down — a la Russiagate.
“Since the day President Trump was elected, congressional Democrats have been working to find any reason under the sun to impeach the president and undo the results of the last election,” Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement on Wednesday.
Still, the Post reports, “Senate Republicans, while publicly rallying around the president, are asking the White House to share more information.”
What’s on tap Thursday
We expect to know more about the whistleblower, who triggered this entire saga in the first place (based on the information we know now).
The contents of the complaint, considered “credible and “urgent” by the inspector general, are still unknown publicly but are said to detail potentially inappropriate actions, including a potential campaign finance violation, by Trump and his interactions with Ukraine. According to the New York Times, the complaint details more than one action by Trump, “suggesting that the matter goes beyond Mr. Trump’s July phone call.”
House Judiciary Chairman Adam Schiff says the whistleblower still may testify this week.
