Follow the Money by Dan Bongino

Author:Dan Bongino [Bongino, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642936605
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2020-07-29T14:21:40+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Whistleblowing in the Dark

I began this book by touching on the impeachment fiasco that arose out of a business-as-usual phone call between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky on July 25, 2019. Revisiting the farce that ensued from this call should be painful to anyone who cares about America, decency, and the rule of law. Those who bought into the claim that President Trump was engaged in, rather than exposing, wrongdoing on the call are living in a fantasy land.

The word diplomacy has come to suggest tactful, polite negotiation to most people. But politicians, leaders, and diplomats all try to exert influence, and they use a wide array of tools to achieve their goals. Diplomacy isn’t always “diplomatic,” as strange as that may sound. One of the best lines about diplomacy I’ve ever read was from Henry Wotton, an English ambassador to Venice in the seventeenth century. He said, “An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.”1

It’s a funny line. And cynical. But largely true.

And as it relates to the Ukraine phone call, it is probably too cynical. There were no lies told during the call. The conversation between Trump and Zelensky was about aid. It was also about two leaders building an alliance for the future. Did President Trump mention “Biden’s son”? He did. Did he prevent Ukraine from receiving the $391 million aid package awarded by Congress?2 No, he did not. Ukraine received the aid in question. Case closed, right? Wrong. Because the Democrats can’t take “no” for an answer when it comes to Trump. And if there’s no evidence of a controversy, then they’ll just fabricate it.

If anything, the cynicism came afterwards, when Democrats cried that the sky was falling because President Trump asked another foreign leader to look into a controversial, politically fraught issue. An issue smacking of the vice president’s son’s influence-peddling to enrich himself, and which featured the vice president publicly bragging that he had meddled in the law enforcement activities of a foreign country.

Administration critics will rant about Trump’s intent during the call, but that is nothing more than speculation masked as fact-finding. These cynics will pontificate about the inferences that can be extracted from the exchange. Again, that’s nothing more than interpretation. And they will moan about the supposed optics of Trump’s request, which is odd considering that no interpretation is necessary regarding Joe Biden’s video-recorded statements where he stated that he had demanded the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor—a prosecutor who intended to investigate Burisma, the Ukrainian firm that had placed Biden’s son on its board—in order to obtain a $1 billion loan.

In the end, however, nothing untoward happened on the Trump-Zelensky call.

How could there be a quid pro quo when the supposed “demand” was never executed? If anything, there was a tit-for-no-tat. Ukraine got the military aid it needed, and it did not initiate a much-needed investigation into Burisma and the Bidens.

If you watched this Schiff-show, you might feel that every tiny detail was trotted out in the endless hearings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.