Trump Calls GOP Congressman Louie "Gomer Pyle" Gohmert “True Patriot” for Spreading Russian Propaganda
December 20th 2019
Donald Trump - Caricature (DonkeyHotey)
By Dan Desai Martin
Donald Trump praised Rep. Louie Gohmert after the Texas Republican spouted Russian propaganda during Wednesday’s House debate over impeachment.
“Our great Congressman Gohmert is a TRUE patriot fighting back against people that must hate our Country!” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.
In arguing against Trump’s impending impeachment, Gohmert falsely accused Ukraine of interfering in the 2016 election.
Gohmert accused Democrats of using the impeachment investigation to “stop the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Ukraine into the corruption of Ukraine interference into US election in 2016,” according to CNN. CNN went on to explain that it was Russia, not Ukraine, that interfered in the 2016 election, adding that the U.S. intelligence community “believes this conspiracy was concocted by Russia to blame Ukraine for its actions in 2016.”
When Gohmert finished speaking, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) pushed back, saying, “I am deeply concerned that any member of the House would spout Russian propaganda on the floor of the House.”
Gohmert started shouting back, but was speaking out of turn and was not speaking into a live microphone.
During public testimony in the House impeachment investigation, Dr. Fiona Hill — a Russia expert and former member of Trump’s National Security Council — debunked the conspiracy theory spouted by Gohmert and other Republicans.
“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did,” Hill said in November. “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
Later, she added that Russian interference — not Ukrainian — is “beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified.”
Gohmert, Trump, or anyone else can read the transcript of her sworn testimony.
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