1/ During a break in the hearing, Doug Collins was asked by reporters whether he has "any concern whatsoever" about Trump asking for an investigation of a political rival.
He says Trump had "deep concerns" about Ukraine's corruption from the "very beginning."
This is absurd.
He says Trump had "deep concerns" about Ukraine's corruption from the "very beginning."
This is absurd.
2/ This claim that Trump was actually really, really concerned about corruption is probably going to come up a lot in the next part of today's hearings, so let's explore it a bit.
3/ First, let's consider the specifics. Trump's first call with Zelensky was in April. If we're to believe that Trump really cares about corruption in Ukraine, then it's really weird that he ignored his own NSC's advice to....discuss corruption on the call politico.com/news/2019/11/1…
4/ In Trump's July call with Ukraine, he doesn't discuss corruption either. Rather, he discusses a single case involving the family member of a political rival.
Go ahead and look again if you need a refresher cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/image…
Go ahead and look again if you need a refresher cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/image…
5/ Then there's the fact that, as Laura Cooper testified, top-level national security officials "expressed unanimous support for resuming the funding," citing Ukraine's *progress fighting corruption.*
6/ Ukraine's anti-corruption efforts were working despite the fact that the Trump administration has sought repeatedly to cut aid programs tasked with combating corruption in a number of countries, *including Ukraine* washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019…
7/ There are a lot of specifics in this case that belie the claims from Trump and his allies that he cares a whit about corruption, but there's also Trump's well-documented personal history of, let's say, unconcern when it comes to corruption.
8/ For example, Trump has railed against the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for years and repeatedly called for its repeal, and his administration might not be enforcing it vigorously npr.org/2017/11/08/561…
9/ One reason for that might be that there's very compelling evidence that suggesting that Trump's company has probably violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act newyorker.com/magazine/2017/… 
10/ In fact, the Trump Organization has probably violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in multiple countries propublica.org/article/trump-…
11/ Trump has shown a propensity for fraud and corruption in a number of other aspects of his personal life. In fact, just since becoming president, he has paid or been ordered to pay $27 million in fraud and charity-abuse settlements.
Here's the latest washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Here's the latest washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
12/ As president he has shown no concern for rules aimed at stemming corruption, both as they apply to him and his appointees.
13/ His administration has been riddled with unprecedented ethics scandals, both in quality and quantity. Multiple cabinet members have left under a cloud of ethics scandals, and at least one might be under criminal investigation. politico.com/story/2019/07/…
14/ Then there's the fact that Trump has refused to divest his stake in his company, opening himself to unprecedented conflicts of interest—allowing wealthy interests and foreign governments to personally enrich him while trying to influence him citizensforethics.org/trump-conflict…
