In their never-ending search to shift the blame for Ukraine, House GOP leaders have decided on yet another strategy; blame Donald Trump’s lieutenants. From The Washington Post:
“House Republicans’ latest plan to shield President Trump from impeachment is to focus on at least three deputies — U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and possibly acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who they say could have acted on their own to influence Ukraine policy.“
Republicans now want us to believe that rather than acting on the president’s demands, these three surrogates actually took it upon themselves to, as the Post writes, “pursue their own agenda.”
The argument is problematic because, as Trump is fond of saying, just read the transcript. In it, Trump tells the president of Ukraine to work with Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr.
“Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”
“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.” – Donald Trump via White House memorandum
This post contains analysis an opinion.