Some of Trump’s language echoes claims he made when he was president. But more than four years have passed, and memories have faded. Here’s a refresher.
“How about this guy, he may end up being a United States Senator, right? Shifty Adam Schiff. Think of it. Can you believe it? He may end up being a senator. This is one of the most dishonest human beings. He made up my conversation that I had with the president of Ukraine. He made up the conversation.”
Trump frequently makes up conversations and his own set of facts. But if someone else makes a mistake, he never lets go. As president, he attacked Rep. Schiff (D-Calif.) 90 times for supposedly making up a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The conversation — which occurred in a not-made-up phone call on July 25, 2019 — was at the center of Trump’s impeachment.
Trump later in his rally speech suggested he had hoodwinked Schiff by releasing “a tape” of his conversation and exposing Schiff’s dishonesty. But Trump had it backward. The White House on Sept. 25, 2019, released a rough transcript, cobbled together from notes of participants, and then Schiff spoke about it at a congressional hearing a day later.
Schiff’s error was that he summarized the transcript for dramatic effect, rather than letting it speak for itself. Schiff told the hearing’s audience that “this is the essence of what the president communicates” and that he would describe “in sum and character, what the president was trying to communicate.” That was a signal to listeners that he was not quoting verbatim from the rough transcription. Nevertheless, Schiff included some eyebrow-raising embellishments.
“Zelensky begins by ingratiating himself, and he tries to enlist the support of the president,” Schiff said. “He expresses his interest in meeting with the president, and says his country wants to acquire more weapons from us to defend itself. And what is the president’s response? Well, it reads like a classic organized crime shakedown.”
Most dramatically, Schiff put these words in Trump’s mouth: “I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though. And I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent. Understand? Lots of it, on this and on that.”
Trump was more subtle than that, according to the transcript. Trump asked for an investigation of Joe Biden, his potential 2020 rival, and suggested that without such a probe, Zelensky would not receive needed weapons. Zelensky also wanted a firm date for a White House meeting, which Trump dangled but did not deliver.
No matter how often Trump spins this as a “perfect” call, this was not a typical presidential conversation with a foreign leader. White House aides who listened to the call at the time later told congressional investigators that Trump’s language calling for a probe of his election opponent was “wrong” and “unusual and inappropriate.”
“He said, there were seven times quid pro quo. Remember that? Quid pro quo seven times. Now, think of it. That means you’ve threatened somebody seven times. I want money, I want this. Then you say it again, I want money.”
Schiff didn’t use the phrase quid pro quo in the hearing. The rough transcript shows that Joe Biden or his son Hunter was mentioned three times, but there are eight distinct Trump requests for a favor or assistance with an investigation. Trump sometimes has claimed that the whistleblower who reported the call to Congress said “quid pro quo” eight…
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