Ukraine Ambassador: Yes, There Was a Direct Quid Pro Quo

Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA

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Bill Taylor, our ambassador to Ukraine—i.e., our actual ambassador, not one of the many hangers-on who screwed around there like callow children—testified before Congress that, hell yes, President Trump held up aid to Ukraine until they agreed to investigate Joe Biden’s son:

In a 15-page opening statement, obtained by The Washington Post, Taylor repeatedly expressed his shock and bewilderment as he watched U.S. policy toward Ukraine get overtaken by Trump’s demand that newly elected president Volodymyr Zelensky “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Democratic presidential candidate Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.”

“ ‘Everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance,” Taylor said he was told by Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

If Republicans want to keep on pretending that this didn’t happen, I suppose there’s no way to make them stop. But obviously it happened. The evidence is overwhelming.

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