It's amazing his computer didn't burst into flames
Trump’s new mantra "no quid pro quo!” reminds me of the classic line delivered by Inigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patinkin, in The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
For an example of a quid pro quo, see the emails of Ambassador Kurt D. Volker, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine. He made it clear that the new president, Volodymr Zelensky, needed to announce that he was opening new government inquiries into Hunter Biden’s former employer, Burisma, and into Trump’s alt-right conspiracy fantasy du jour, about imagined Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election in the US on behalf of Hillary Clinton!
That is, Zelensky would launch those probes pronto, if he wanted to receive two things necessary for his nation’s survival:
A. an invitation for him to visit Washington, to signal to Russia, which seized Crimea and occupies a large swath of eastern Ukraine, that the USA has Ukraine’s back; and
B. the $391 million in military assistance to fight Russia that Trump had quietly suspended, without informing Zelensky. He got the news from Politico! His shock probably registered on the Richter Scale.
What else do Republicans need to discern the abuse of power that is manifest in the Volker/Yermak/Giuliani/Sondland/Taylor email string, and the memo of Trump’s 25 July shake-down of Zelensky over the phone?
The smoking emails scream for themselves. They scream “conspiracy” and “impeachment.”
PS: Poor Zelensky. He, like Trump, is a TV celebrity-turned-president. But while Trump-as-Trump in The Apprentice boosted ratings with his cruel arrogance and his delight in humiliating contestants as losers, Zelensky took a comedic path to power. He gained his fame playing a school teacher who mistakenly becomes president of Ukraine!
Now he is reprising the role of a funny, well-meaning guy, who finds himself completely over his head after being pushed into the deep end of the political shark tank.
