russia? no, the big stuff, what president trump cares about. i m not quoting verbatim because i don t have it in front of me but the substance of this is very clear. what does he care about? what can benefit him, like the bidens. it s very clear from multiple witnesses exactly what president trump wanted to get from president zelensky. he wanted a statement on television that ukraine was investigating and was going to investigate vice president joe biden, and he wanted a statement contradicting the 2016 understanding by our intelligence committee and by special counsel mueller that there had been a sweeping and systematic campaign by russia to interfere on the campaign and saying it was ukraine that interfered in our campaign. that s what he wanted. that was the big stuff. he didn t care about the russian war on the people of ukraine.
he didn t care about corruption. they invite us to believe that donald trump is an anti-corruption crusader who was shaking down president zelensky about corruption when he doesn t raise any corruption on that call except for what he believed was going on with the bidens, except that he reduced anti-corruption funding for ukraine, except he doesn t raise it anywhere else that we can find. what do you know, pick up the new york times yesterday, president trump had to pay $2 million to charities because he ripped off his own charity for millions of dollars. this is the anti-corruption crusader they want us to believe in, the guy who paid $25 million to students at the phony trump university which the attorney general of new york called a classic bait and switch operation. this is the guy that they want us to believe was shaking down the president of ukraine because
it was about having an investigation announced on cnn and then you ll get the military aid. sondland told one of the aides to president zelensky, you ve got to announce the investigation. it was a strong arm. they did it. where do we get these people in the loop to testify? they ve been asked to testify, the president says no, he won t let them testify. he knows that if they tell the truth, it will hurt his case because they know that they held up the military aid. president zelensky has no choice. he needs america to protect himself from the big bear, russia. they say he hasn t said that he felt pressured, a, he s an actor, and b, he s a politician. he depends on us. he has no choice, so he can t say that.
evidence but is deeply rooted in personal opinion and perception. mr. turley also explained that implications of this occurrence, quote, we have never impeached a president solely or largely on the basis of a noncriminal abuse of power allegation. there s good reason for that unbroken record. abuses of power tend to be even less defined and more debatable as a basis for impeachment than some of the crimes already mentioned. he went on to say that the problem with proving an abuse of power theory is the lack of direct evidence due to the failure to compel key witnesses to testify or production of key documents. now let s talk about the direct evidence that they have. there is none. the only person who would have firsthand knowledge of the quid pro quo, bribery, extortion or whatever buzz word the democrats want, is president zelensky who has categorically denied any such agreement or pressure. herein lies the issue with hinging your entire impeachment on a noncriminal abuse of power all
to qualify for the security assistance appropriated by congress. the president himself directed the aid to be put on hold. in july ukranian officials asked pentagon staff about the hold on military assistance. no legitimate public policy or rationale exists and the president has not brought one forward for the president s decision to withhold security assistance to ukraine. providing aid to ukraine is in the national security interest of the united states. withholding it is in the personal, political interests of the president and of putin. president trump failed to say the word corruption during his april 21st call with president zelensky, president trump failed to say the word corruption during his july 25th call to president zelensky. the aid to ukraine was released only after house committees announced an investigation into the administration s decision to halt the aid.