President Trump said: Read the transcript! [Politics]

Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

        ^ Okay, I know a lot of people don’t like to read too many words. We are a society that has been conditioned to respond to sound bites. It’s less intellectually demanding. This writing is almost 4,000 words and will on average take 20 minutes to read. Minutes that you’ll never get back. If you’re a President Trump supporter DO NOT READ this. It will only aggravate you and you don’t need the aggravation. I’m serious. I’m not trying to change your mind.

        ^ If your primary sources of information are Fox Pravda and RT a lot of what will be presented here will be brand new information that you haven’t seen before. I just couldn’t resist saying Fox Pravda and Russian Television (RT) since they like so many in the Republican leadership pass along Russian propaganda. Just to give you a heads up there will be more sarcasm like this throughout the piece.

        ^ Have you done what our President asked? 

        ^ President Trump keeps telling people to read the transcript of his “perfect” phone call that the White House released. If you say that you have read the transcript of his call I’m going to have to inform you here that you haven’t. Can’t be done. That’s actually impossible for “we the people” to do.

        ^ Now why would I make such an outrageous statement?

        ^ Because the White House at the direction of President Trump produced a memorandum NOT a transcript. The subject line says “MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION. There’s another caution note at the bottom that explains in greater detail why the memorandum is not a transcript. So, we literally can’t read a transcript that has not been produced.

        ^ There’s a huge difference between a transcript and a memorandum produced from notes and recollections. Or as our President would say “YUGE!” if he knew that there was a difference between the two. He should. After all he’s a stable genius. There’s a big difference though when it comes to optics if you’re saying ‘read the transcript’ or ‘read the memorandum’.

        ^ READ THE MEMORANDUM! Just doesn’t have the same feel does it? Doesn’t sound as official as “READ THE TRANSCRIPT”! Now we’re talking the real deal! The word for word reference of the call.   

        ^ A transcript could have been produced.

        ^ An audio of the phone call could have been provided.

        ^ Crap, if the conversation was perfect President Trump could have released the audio recording of the telephone call even if parts were classified. After all he’s been a walking-talking security breach since THE DAY he took office so what would one more be at this point? During President Nixon’s impeachment hearing the Supreme Court ordered that the President comply with subpoenas and produce the tape recordings of private conversations.

        ^ Really? Think about that. Why didn’t President Trump produce an audio or actual transcript of the call? Why not allow any of the principle parties to testify to his innocence? That would have shut the whole inquiry down. Period. Everyone should ask this question, supporters and opposition alike.

        ^ Our Constitution is important. Before I started writing this and before the impeachment proceedings got underway I went and checked back to see how Republicans and Democrats felt about previous impeachments and the “Rule of Law”.

        ^ I was around for the President Nixon impeachment, although he quit before the Articles of Impeachment could be voted upon. He also knew that he would be voted guilty by the Senate as well because of the evidence. He also cooperated. Had to. (Here’s a link if you’re interested. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/impeachments/nixon.htm Additional links at the bottom of the page will take you to the other impeachments.) The Supreme Court ruled that he had to turn over the information to the House Committee. If you read the articles of impeachment against Nixon it’s plain to see that they could just as easily be applied to what President Trump as has done today in regard to obstructing justice. Nixon at least had the decency to resign from office. LOTs of people from his Administration went to jail. I believe that Nixon’s Administration set the bar in that regard. Quite a few from President Trump’s Administration have gone or are awaiting sentencing, including men from his inner circle.

        ^ The President Clinton impeachment went to a vote and he was impeached by the house. He was essentially impeached for lying about getting a blow job. Sorry about the language but that’s just the way it is. He was (may still be, for all I know) a sexual predator. I would go into all this more but I’ll save that for another time.

        ^ My point is that previous Presidents provided documentation and witnesses.

        ^ I’m going to spend a couple of thousand words talking about this. If you want the short version just read the bullet points below.

·                 President Trump called Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

·                 They congratulated each other and told each other they were great. They talk politics. President Trump is the greatest. President Zelensky sucks up a lot to President Trump.

·                 President Trump reminds President Zelensky how much we’ve done for him and how little everyone else has done for their country and that he hasn’t done anything for us.

·                 President Zelensky says that they want sanctions against the Russians enforced, will cooperate with us and they want to buy some Javelins.

·                 President Trump says do me a favor though. Say that you’re investigating a political opponent and his son.

·                 President Zelensky says okee dokee.

·                 President Trump says the Attorney General and Rudy Giuliani will help him.

·                 They talk about who has the biggest plane. President Trump wins.

·                 Poor President Zelensky never gets confirmation that he’ll get his Javelins or anything else.

·                 Meeting is over.

·                 Bad President! BAD!

·                 A room filled with the best people leaks like a sieve as to what transpired and the soon to be whistleblower hears about it.

·                 President Trump issues a memorandum that verifies the whistleblowers account of the proceedings.

·                 The rest is becoming history

        ^ The person who oversaw the investigation of the whistleblower complaint is an appointee of President Trump. All the whistleblower did was report that he had credible reason to believe that a crime may have been committed by the President. That report was investigated and found to be a valid concern.

        ^ Now here is where it gets interesting. The President had a MEMORANDUM, not a partial transcript or transcript of the call, released to the general public that validates the whistleblower complaint. Yet, the President calls the reporting of what’s contained in the memorandum fake news. This is like when he said that the Mueller Report exonerated him completely but was fake. He consistently puts forth two opposing views and they are accepted by his followers. He wasn’t exonerated and the report wasn’t fake.

        ^ I have never given blind loyalty to any person, let alone a President. I don’t feel compelled to defend any politician’s bad, outrageous behavior or lies. I expect natural bias in the way that facts are presented, however, the truth is the truth no matter how it’s dressed. I use a variety of news sources from left to right in checking for the facts. It’s the adjectives that they use around the facts that project their leanings even if the facts that they present or in some cases don’t present, like Fox Pravda, that are important. Why was some aspect left out?

        ^ In the instance of what happened during the President’s call to the President of the Ukraine, President Zelensky I just used the memorandum released by the order of President Trump. That memorandum is noted as not being verbatim. The Memorandum is readily available for download. I’ve tacked on the entire transcript at the end of this for those that are interested. It’s after the ‘$’ signs.

        ^ There’s the usual back and forth, hi how are you doing kind of stuff. You’re great. No, you’re great. No, you’re the greatest.

        ^ President Trump quickly lets President Zelensky know how much the United States has done for his country.

        ^ I’m going to hit just a few high points of the memorandum but not go into great detail about all that was said. The majority, and I mean vast majority, of what President Trump says to President Zelensky is questionable or an outright lie. He simply passes along conspiracy theories. The theories he passed along have been disproven by his own government. What do I mean by that? President Trump will say “they say…” without saying who ‘they’ is. He disparages our own people to the President of another country. His own appointees. Our government. The men and women of our intelligence services.

From the memorandum:

President Trump: “I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you.” (BTW this isn’t true.)… I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.

End.

        ^ The last sentence above is an interesting one. President Trump is telling President Zelensky that the Ukraine hasn’t been helping us even though bad things have been happening to the United States. He doesn’t specify what. He gets to that later in the call.

        ^ Here’s where in the conversation President Zelensky makes his move and sends out a feeler. He hits up President Trump and asks for Javelins.

From the memorandum:

President Zelensky: “We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.”

President Trump: “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it.”

End.

        ^ Okay, I’m going to wrap this up.

        ^ The phone call was a far cry from perfect (if it is even possible to define what “perfect” might mean in this context).

        ^ The majority of the phone call was about politics.

        ^ If nothing else the memorandum provided probable cause for a deeper investigation. In other words people don’t have to read just the memorandum and decide whether guilt is proved based upon the memorandum alone.

        ^ The memorandum validated what the whistleblower maintained he had overheard. It was more than enough to establish probable cause for further investigation.

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UNCLASSIFIED
Declassified by order of the President
September 24, 2019
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
SUBJECT: Telephone Conversation with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine
Participants: President Zelenskyy of Ukraine
Notetakers: The White House Situation Room
Date, Time July 25, 2019, 9:03-9:33 am EDT
and Place: Residence

The President: Congratulations on a great victory. We all watched from the United States and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn't given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It's a fantastic achievement. Congratulations.

President Zelenskyy: You are absolutely right Mr. President. We did win big and we worked hard for this. We worked a lot but I would like to confess to you that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections and yes it is true that these were unique elections. We were in a unique situation that we were able to achieve a unique success. I'm able to tell you the following; the first time you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we can talk over the phone more often.

The President: (laughter) That's a very good idea. I think your country is very happy about that.

President Zelenskyy: Well yes, to tell you the truth, we are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government. You are a great teacher for us and in that.

The President: Well it is very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it's something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she ·doesn't do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it's something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.

President Zelenskyy: Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000% and I can tell you the following; I did talk to Angela Merkel and I did meet with her I also met and talked with Macron and I told them that they are not doing quite as much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions. They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for Ukraine. It turns out that even though logically, the European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union and I'm very grateful to you for that because the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.

The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible.

President Zelenskyy: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you.

The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, 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. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.

President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I'm knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament, the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not accept me as a new President well enough.

The President: Well, she's going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor so good luck with everything. Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It's a great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, their incredible people.

President Zelenskyy: I would like to tell you that I also have quite a few Ukrainian friends that live in the United States. Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower. I will talk to them and I hope to see them again in the future. I also wanted to thank you for your invitation to visit the United States, specifically Washington DC. On the other hand, I also want to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation. We are buying American oil but I am very hopeful for a future meeting. We will have more time and more opportunities to discuss these opportunities and get to know each other better. I would like to thank you very much for your support.

The President: Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we'll work that out. I look forward to seeing you.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you very much. I would be very happy to come and would be happy to meet with you personally and get to know you better. I am looking forward to our meeting and I also would like to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the city of Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful country which would welcome you. On the other hand, I believe that on September 1 we will be in Poland and we can meet in Poland hopefully. After that, it might be a very good idea for you to travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine.

The President: Okay, we can work that out. I look forward to seeing you in Washington and maybe in Poland because I think we are going to be there at that time.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you very much Mr. President.

The President: Congratulations on a fantastic job you've done. The whole world was watching. I'm not sure it was so much of an upset but congratulations.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you Mr. President bye-bye.

- - End of conversation - -