President Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that she doesn’t know if military aid was withheld from Ukraine because the White House wanted the nation to look into 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Conway sparred with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” about the possibility of a quid pro quo between the president and Ukraine. The White House counselor avoided Bash’s original questions about whether aid was held up at the time of the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, comparing her questioning to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) impeachment inquiry process.
{mosads}“I think if you’re going to do respectfully what Adam Schiff does, which is come out and cherry-pick 10 seconds or 10 minutes of 10 hours of testimony — we have no access to the full testimony because everything’s been done in the dark in secret. That process has been flawed from the beginning,” Conway said.
Bash responded that she wanted to ask about the “substance” of the impeachment inquiry, not the process.
“Was there a time when military aid was held up because the president wanted Ukraine to look into the Bidens?” Bash asked.
“I don’t know,” Conway answered. “But they’ve got their aid.”
Conway then cited U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s texts to U.S. diplomat William Taylor saying there was no quid pro quo.
The contentious interview revolved around the controversial call that sparked the impeachment inquiry, in which Trump asked Zelensky to look into former Vice President Biden and his son. The U.S. days earlier had held up military aid to Ukraine.