Trump ‘incapable’ of forming quid pro quo with Ukrainian officials, Graham says
During an interview about the ongoing impeachment inquiry at the Capitol Wednesday, South Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham called President Donald Trump’s policy in the Ukraine “incoherent.”
Graham added that the Trump administration likely could not have withheld aid from Ukraine leaders to use as a bargaining chip to pressure officials to restart an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“They seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo,” Graham told reporters, according to a video tweeted out by Graham’s communication’s director. Graham later retweeted the video on his own account.
The statement is Graham’s latest defense of Trump — to whom Graham has been a staunch political ally — as House Democrats explore the interaction between the president’s administration and Ukrainian officials as part of an impeachment inquiry. Graham insisted the inquiry was “a political vendetta.”
“The whole process is a joke,” Graham said.
An unofficial White House transcript released in September showed Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Hunter Biden, who formerly sat on the board of Bursima, a Ukrainian natural gas company. Trump and his personal lawyer have alleged that Joe Biden pressured Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor in order to end his investigation into Bursima, but the allegations are unfounded.
House Democrats have questioned diplomats and other officials with knowledge of the conversation as part of their impeachment inquiry.
During that time, former U.S. special representative to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, testified that he did not know about any possible quid pro quo involving the withheld aid. But on Monday, U.N. Ambassador Gordon Sondland revised his earlier testimony to say he did recall a conversation linking the aid to the investigation of the Bidens.
“I now recall speaking individually with Mr. (Andriy) Yermak, where I said resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland said.
Graham said he heard about Sondland’s reversal, but focused on the unofficial White House transcript of the call.
“I’ve read the transcript for myself,” he said. “I’ve made up my own mind.”
