Former President Donald Trump told an entirely fictional story on Saturday about how he had supposedly outwitted his Democratic opponents by releasing āthe tapeā of theĀ 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was a key factor inĀ Trumpās first impeachment.
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Facts First:Ā Trumpās story is a complete fabrication. No tape of his call with Zelensky was ever released; Pelosi could not possibly have been angry with her allies after hearing a tape of the call because she has never heard a tape of the call. In fact, as of nearly five years after the July 2019 call, there isĀ noĀ known US recordingĀ of the conversation. What Trumpās White House actually released in September 2019 was aĀ rough written transcriptĀ of the call ā whichĀ corroborated, rather than contradicted, aĀ government whistleblowerās central allegationsĀ about what Trump had said.Ā Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett said Sunday that Trumpās story is āfact-free nonsense.ā
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Former President Donald Trump told an entirely fictional story on Saturday about how he had supposedly outwitted his Democratic opponents by releasing āthe tapeā of the 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that was a key factor inĀ Trumpās first impeachment.
Trump claimed that Pelosi was told, āLetās just pretend he did and keep going forward.ā He continued, āAfter they made up the story and then after that they heard the tape, they died.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was one of the officials listening to Trumpās call with Zelensky in his role at the time as the top Ukraine expert for the White Houseās National Security Council (and who later became an important witness in the impeachment inquiry), told CNN in a text message on Sunday that there is āno recordingā of the call.
But that Trump claim never made any sense, either ā because, in reality, he released the rough transcript beforeĀ Schiff gave hisĀ exaggerated rendition of itĀ at a congressional hearing.
In Trumpās 2019 versions of the story, he claimed that Pelosi had been dismayed with her allies after she read the rough transcript, not after she listened to āthe tape.ā But there was no basis even for that claim; after the rough transcript was released, Pelosi issued aĀ scathing statementĀ accusing Trump of ālawlessnessā and attempting āto shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign.āĀ A Pelosi spokesperson told CNN in 2019 that Trumpās account of her supposed thoughts was ācomplete fiction.ā
He told the ātapeā version of the story while again bashing Schiff, who is now running for a US Senate seat in California.
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