Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. This is not a transcript. It is a summary. And even so, it is devastating. It is a sign that Trump, @LindseyGrahamSC and much of the GOP is so suffused in corruption they can't even recognize it anymore.

Lots of folks are commenting on the "do us a favor, though..." and....

@LindseyGrahamSC 2...other elements. However, I believe that this summary, even in its small amounts, has been extremely edited - by Trump himself. It also shows that Trump knows nothing about Ukraine.

One important element: Trump slamming the Germans...

@LindseyGrahamSC 3...in the call, he says to Zelensky (whose name is repeatedly misspelled in this summary - another Trump tell.) that Germany "does almost nothing for you....a lot of European countries are the same way."

Zelensky replies: "You are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but 1000%"...

@LindseyGrahamSC 4...add to that, on a per capita basis, Germans provides almost 4 times the support as the United States. Finally, what foreign leader would slam the leader of a nation providing that much money? All while using a colloquialism that is used by...Donald Trump....

@LindseyGrahamSC 5...the "does nothing" shows Trump's ignorance. The "I agree" shows either Zelensky is a fool, or this summary has been edited falsely. And Zelensky's use of an American colloquialism is quite suspicious.

Add to that: Zelensky's use of Trump's own language...

@LindseyGrahamSC 6...Zelensky says that he wants to "drain the swamp." He says he will surround himself "with the best and most experienced people." Maybe Zelensky is imitating Trump, throwing his words back at him to win his favor. But this is very very suspicious...

@LindseyGrahamSC 7...next, and most important: Trump sides himself with one of the worst, most corrupt people in Ukraine, a man who was driven out of office because of the demands of IMF, EU, US, foreign investors, and Ukranians who took to the streets to protest.....

@LindseyGrahamSC 8...Trump is either urging a return to the corruption of Ukraine, where prosecutions were political, or he is simply ignorant of major recent Ukranian history.

Trump states, and I will quote the whole statement because it is so important....

@LindseyGrahamSC 9..."I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people
involved."

The man he is discussing is Victor Shokin....

@LindseyGrahamSC 10...this was a uniquely corrupt man. In the words at the time of Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs at the State Department and a career Ambassador, the highest diplomatic rank in the United States Foreign Service:

@LindseyGrahamSC 11...Shokin was so corrupt that, it led his deputy Vitaly Kasko to resign in protest, long before Biden said anything. This was nationally broadcast, and came shortly after another major member of the govenemtn resigned over Shokin's corruption....

@LindseyGrahamSC 12...the Ukranian people, who also were taking to the streets to demand Shokin's removal, put together a petition to demand his removal. Unlike in the United States, such petitions have to be answered by the president....

@LindseyGrahamSC 13...NGO's and officials from the EU were demanding Shokin's removal because of his corruption....

@LindseyGrahamSC 14...Ukranian political parties were demanding Shokin's removal because of his corruption....

@LindseyGrahamSC 15...the deputy head of the Ukranian security service resigned because of Shokin's corruption....

@LindseyGrahamSC 16...outside analysts saw Shokin as a block on corruption investigations, and as such was angering the EU....

@LindseyGrahamSC 17...the US ambassador to Ukraine under GW Bush cited in sworn testimony before Congress about the demands across the world for Shokin to resign and how this improved things in Ukraine...

@LindseyGrahamSC 18...this could go on and on and on. And all of these statements (except for the last which was a review of history) came before Joe Biden said a word....

And now, a reminder of what Trump said about him...

@LindseyGrahamSC 19..."I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your
very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved."

@LindseyGrahamSC 20. Trump has told Zelensky that he supports the corrupt prosecutor and that he considers those people fighting against corruption in Ukraine to be "very bad people."

Is he an idiot? Is he encouraging Zelensky to return Ukraine to the era of political prosecutions? Or both?