In a completely made-up account that he delivered on Saturday, former president Trump claimed to have thwarted Democratic opponents by releasing “the tape” of the 2019 phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which played a significant role in Trump’s initial impeachment.
During his speech at an Ohio campaign rally on Saturday, Trump asserted that he allowed Democrats to make “wilder and wilder” accusations regarding his conversation with Zelensky “and then we released the tape.” Trump went on to assert that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who was in office at the time, was enraged upon “hearing” this recording because her associates had given her “false” accounts of the call. Pelosi allegedly yelled out to “her people” and asked, “What the hell did you get me into?” Does this ring a bell? He had nothing to do with it whatsoever!
A statement was allegedly conveyed to Pelosi, “Let’s just pretend he did and keep going forward,” according to Trump. “After they made up the story and then heard the tape, they died,” he added. They had no idea the call had been recorded. Clearly, that was an example of a well-tapeted phone conversation. Plus, they were caught red-handed after being videotaped.
First Things First: Trump has flat-out fabricated his story. No recording of his conversation with Zelensky was ever made public, thus Pelosi has no basis for believing that she became enraged with her allies upon listening to the call. Surprisingly, no US recording of the call exists, even though it was over five years ago in July 2019. In September 2019, the Trump administration made public a rough transcript of the call, which supported, rather than disproved, the main claims made by a federal whistleblower regarding Trump’s statements. According to Pelosi spokesman Aaron Bennett, Trump’s narrative is “fact-free nonsense.”
The United States government does not normally record conversations between presidents and foreign heads of state. Instead, a mix of software and US officials who listen in imperfectly record them in writing.
In a text message sent to AWN on Sunday, Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman denied that the call had been recorded. Vindman had been listening to Trump’s call with Zelensky during his tenure as the top Ukraine expert for the White House’s National Security Council, and he went on to become a key witness in the impeachment investigation.
“He’s misleading,” Vindman remarked.
False assertions made by Trump during his presidency are repeated in his new tale.
Since late 2019, Trump has been attempting to spin the truth surrounding his conversation with Zelensky. During the call, Zelensky mentioned Ukraine’s interest in purchasing US weapons. In response, Trump urged Zelensky to look into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and a baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Biden, who was seen as Trump’s potential Democratic opponent in 2020. At his speech on Saturday, Trump repeated incorrect claims he made more than four years ago, which AWN has already fact checked.
Releasing the rough transcript of the discussion with Zelensky after Schiff had misleadingly described what Trump had said, Trump claimed in the prior reports that he had triumphed against a significant figure in the impeachment movement, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California. He asserted that Schiff would never have spoken those words had he known Trump would make public the draft transcript.
Additionally, Trump’s assertion was never plausible as he had already made public the unpolished transcript prior to Schiff’s inflated presentation of it during a congressional hearing.
According to Trump’s 2019 accounts, Pelosi was disappointed with her allies after reading the preliminary transcript, not after listening to “the tape.” After the rough transcript was made public, Pelosi made a harsh statement in which she accused Trump of “lawlessness” and trying to “shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign.” However, not even that accusation had any foundation. The 2019 AWN interview with Pelosi’s spokesman concluded that Trump’s description of her purported ideas was “complete fiction.”
During his speech in Ohio on Saturday, Trump made a plethora of additional unfounded assertions. While continuing to criticise Schiff—who is now seeking reelection to the US Senate from California—he relayed the “tape” version of the story.
