Kellyanne Conway says ‘I don’t know’ if Trump held up Ukraine military aid
White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday that she does not know if President Donald Trump withheld US military aid to Ukraine, but stood by the White House’s response that there was no quid pro quo between Trump and the country’s president.
Her comments come after the House passed an impeachment resolution outlining procedures moving forward in its impeachment inquiry into the President centered on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A whistleblower complaint alleges the President pushed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden in Ukraine. Trump has denied any wrongdoing
Conway told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” Sunday there was “no quid pro quo in this call in terms of the President” when asked about the foreign aid.
“President Trump never said to the Ukrainian President ‘do this and you’ll get your aid.’ It is simply not here,” she said.
But when pressed on what happened after the July call between Trump and Zelensky, and if she felt confident there was no quid pro quo, Conway said she did not know.
“So you feel totally confident that at the core of this, at the heart of this, there was no quid pro quo?” Bash asked.
“I feel confident about the fact that Ukraine has that aid and using it right now. That is because of this President that they have it. The last President …,” Conway said.
“Kellyanne, you very notably won’t say, ‘yes or no,’ Bash interjected.
“It doesn’t …” Conway said
“Quid pro quo, yes or no?” Bash asked.
“I just said to you. I don’t know whether aid was being held up and for how long,” Conway said. “I know there were two Senators, a Democrat and Republican who called over to Ukraine and inquired about the aid.”
Andrew Bates, spokesman for Biden, said on Sunday the Trump administration is “melting down.”
“In an extraordinary development, even the Trump adviser who coined the term ‘alternative facts’ is unwilling to say that Donald Trump didn’t subvert American national security with a quid pro quo that would force a foreign country to lie about the candidate who’s beaten him in over 70 polls,” he said in a statement to CNN.
“The White House has already admitted that Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to spread this vile, universally-debunked conspiracy theory. And the lead White House Ukraine expert, a decorated Iraq veteran, has now testified that military assistance was delayed in an attempt to force Ukraine to become an involuntary arm of the struggling Trump re-election campaign. Donald Trump’s administration is melting down because of the lengths to which he’d go not to face Joe Biden next year.”
