GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Botches Key Details of Trump-Ukraine Call in Embarrassing CBS Interview
October 1st 2019
Kevin McCarthy - Caricature (DonkeyHotey)
By Dan Desai Martin
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy seemed baffled and confused Sunday night when “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley read him one of the most damning exchanges between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“What do you make of this exchange,” Pelley asks. “President Zelensky says, ‘We are almost ready to buy more javelins from the United States for defense purposes.’ And President Trump replies, ‘I would like you do us a favor though.'”
McCarthy (R-CA) followed up by falsely accusing Pelley of misstating the content in the White House memo of the call between Trump and Zelensky.
“You just added another word,” McCarthy says. “You said, ‘I’d like you to do a favor though.'”
“Yes, it’s in the White House transcript,” Pelley told McCarthy.
Trump’s phone call with Zelensky is at the center of a Trump impeachment probe. On the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden for long-debunked allegations related to his time in office. It is illegal for anyone to solicit campaign assistance from a foreign national.
More than 300 former national security professionals released a letter on Friday calling Trump’s actions not only an “unconscionable abuse of power,” but saying they are “a profound national security concern.”
McCarthy was not the only Republican House member to face embarrassment on national television over the weekend.
CNN’s Jake Tapper fact-checked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) face-to-face after Jordan made false allegations against Biden while defending Trump.
At the end of the exchange, Tapper said to Jordan, “I would think somebody who’s been accused of things in the last year or two would be more sensitive about throwing out wild allegations against people,” referring to allegations that Jordan turned a blind eye to students being sexually abused while Jordan was a wrestling coach at Ohio State University.
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