House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) struggled on Sunday to defend Donald Trump's attempt to bribe the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
November 17, 2019

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) struggled on Sunday to defend Donald Trump's attempt to bribe the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace grilled Scalise about reports that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was heard saying Trump only cared about things that benefit him, like an investigation into Biden.

Wallace pointed out that Trump "never mentions the word 'corruption'" in either of his telephone calls with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky but he did mention Joe Biden and his son.

"What he talks about is investigations," Wallace explained. "Investigations of the Democrats, possible interference in 2016, investigations into the Bidens."

Scalise complained that none of the impeachment witnesses who have testified in public hearings were on the calls with Trump and Zelensky.

"That's not true for Gordon Sondland," Wallace said. "Gordon Sondland met directly with the president a half dozen times."

"Doesn't that blow a hole in the president's defense?" Wallace asked.

"The president's defense is that those things didn't happen," Scalise said of pressure put on Ukraine. "There were only two people who participated in that phone call, President Trump and President Zelensky... the bottom line is he got the money."

"A dozen people listened in on the phone call," Wallace interrupted. "They are career foreign service officers. These are people who worked in the Trump administration."

"The inspector general said the whistleblower had political motivations," Scalise said.

"We're not talking about the whistleblower," Wallace replied. "I'm asking you about these people who worked for the Trump administration, who worked on the National Security Council or worked for the vice president's office."

"The foreign minister of Ukraine just came out two days ago to clear some of this up," Scalise remarked.

"He incidentally was not on the call either," Wallace chuckled.

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