Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, appeared Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee and testified that there was, in fact, a quid pro quo involved in President Donald Trump’s request that Ukraine announce it would investigate a potential 2020 political opponent. CNN reported that the GOP and the White House were particularly anxious about what Sondland would say during his testimony.
During his testimony, right-wing media personalities sought to attack Sondland’s credibility.
Brent Bozell claimed that if people listened to Sondland, they would “understand why America elected Donald Trump president to get rid of people like Sondland.” In reality, Sondland was appointed by Trump after he donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration via four companies he controls. (Bozell was swiftly ratioed and deleted the tweet.)
He deleted it :( pic.twitter.com/Cenka28uHF
— Alex Koppelman (@AlexKoppelman) November 20, 2019
One America News pundit and Pizzagate peddler Jack Posobiec backed up Bozell’s weak argument. Posobiec tweeted: “Brent's tweet is correct. Voters wanted to drain these swampcreatures, not reward them.” He then claimed that “everyone knows” Trump wanted to drain the swamp.
Fake Jake misleading again. Trump voters wanted to drain the swamp, not reward it. Everyone knows that. https://t.co/ZuM8Qe1rnC
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) November 20, 2019
Posobiec later would claim that Sondland’s testimony was “clearly a PR win for Dems.”
Sondland testimony on whole was clearly a PR win for Dems and anyone who says otherwise is just in hard spin mode
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) November 20, 2019
Will Chamberlain, publisher of Human Events, posited that Trump wouldn’t have reasonably expressed “corrupt intent” on “such a public call” with the president of Ukraine.
How many people were on Trump's call with Zelensky?
Yesterday we heard that some low-level NSC staffer and a Pence aide were on the call
Are we talking 20 people? 30 people?
If Trump had corrupt intent, why would he "extort" anyone on such a public call?#ImpeachmentHearing
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 20, 2019
Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton claimed that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani actually “deserve praise” for pushing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and to look into the Crowdstrike conspiracy theory.
.@RealDonaldTrump and @RudyGiuliani deserve praise for pushing for accountability because these officials seem to have zero concern about Ukraine's collusion w/Obama admin targeting America's election in 2016 -- and the Biden cover-up...
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) November 20, 2019
Former Infowars Washington bureau chief Jerome Corsi said he thought Sondland was “BORING.”
Sondland lost TV audience w long (will it ever end?) opening. Self-important, self-justifying. But nobody ever elected Sondland. BORING OPINION in the weeds detail. Opening statement & deposition contradict each other. PERJURY? #ImpeachmentHearings #KAG2020 @realDonaldTrump #KAG
— Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@jerome_corsi) November 20, 2019
Ronna McDaniel, chair of the GOP, insisted that because Sondland had testified that Trump repeatedly said there was no “quid pro” that there was nothing improper about what Trump had done.
Reminder: Sondland said in his sworn testimony:
“I asked the President, what do you want from Ukraine? The President responded, nothing. There is no quid pro. The President repeated, no quid pro.”@realDonaldTrump was abundantly clear: #NoQuidProQuo!
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) November 20, 2019
Jim Hoft, owner of the fringe blog The Gateway Pundit, encouraged the GOP and the White House to make a video juxtaposing Democrats with “every other corrupt coup in some failed banana republic in the past 80 years.”
The @GOP and Trump @WhiteHouse need to cut a video comparing @TheDemocrats attempted coup to every other corrupt coup in some failed banana republic in the past 80 years -- many also organized by CIA. pic.twitter.com/Q4n584RJOK
— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) November 20, 2019