Donald Trump has read from handwritten notes as he insisted he wanted “nothing” from Ukraine after bombshell revelations from his impeachment inquiry.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump read from ‘Aboard Air Force One’ notepad letterhead as he attempted to downplay testimony given to Congress by the one of his top ambassadors.
Gordon Sondland, the hotel executive Trump appointed as the US Ambassador to the European Union and after he donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, testified on Wednesday that Trump gave him “express direction” to work with presidential lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.
“Everyone was in the loop,” Sondland said, later claiming: “We followed the president’s orders.”
Trump appeared to reiterate word-for-word what Sondland told Congress about his conversation with the president, reading from notes visible to reporters.
The note reads:
I want nothing.
I want nothing.
I want no quid pro quo.
Tell Zellinsky to do the right thing.
This is the final word from the Pres of the U.S.
Trump misspelled Ukrainain President Volodymyr Zelensky as “Zellinsky”, the pictures showed.
Re-enacting a talk he had with Sondland in September, Trump claimed it showed the inquiry should be “all over”.
“What do you want from Ukraine, he asks me, screaming, What do you want from Ukraine? I keep hearing all of these ideas and theories. This is ambassador Sondland speaking to me,” Trump said.
“And now here is my response that he just gave. Ready? You have the cameras rolling? I want nothing. That’s what I want from Ukraine. That’s what I said, I want nothing. I said it twice.”
Trump said he did not know Sondland well and claimed that the “fake news” media has not covered his remarks about Ukraine correctly.
“I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky, President Zelensky, to do the right thing,” Trump said, again referencing his talk with Sondland.
“So here’s my answer, I want nothing, I want nothing, I want no quid pro quo ... Then he says, this is the final word from the president of the United States. I want nothing.”