The New York Times is mounting a last ditch and very desperate effort to try and sway Republicans to vote for the motion to call witnesses, with another ‘characterization’ from Bolton’s manuscript:
NEW: Bolton claims in book that Trump told him in front of other WH aides in May to call Zelensky and make sure he met with Rudy @nytmike and me https://t.co/f9SOgKs9VO
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 31, 2020
Here’s more:
More than two months before he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton.
Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, who is now leading the president’s impeachment defense.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Bolton to call Volodymyr Zelensky, who had recently won election as president of Ukraine, to ensure Mr. Zelensky would meet with Mr. Giuliani, who was planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the investigations that the president sought, in Mr. Bolton’s account. Mr. Bolton never made the call, he wrote.
The very first paragraph in their write-up is the NY Times biased characterization of what happened, so ignore it. The third paragraph where Bolton is said to have described what happened shows that it was only a direction to call Zelensky and get him to meet with Giuliani. Which is what Maggie Haberman says in her tweet.
And there is nothing shocking about this at all! In fact, if you go back and look at the transcript of Trump’s call with Zelensky, Trump mentioned to Zelensky that he wanted Giuliani to talk with him. This is nothing new.
But liberal media folks are blasting this out as if it’s bombshell new evidence or something, hoping that it will sway a weak Republican into voting for witnesses. I’m sure Democrats will be touting this heavily today as they debate before the big witness vote.