Republicans, attempting to pretend that Donald Trump isn’t running a criminal enterprise out of the White House, have tied themselves into knots hitherto unknown to sailors, Boy Scouts or philosophers. One of these Gordian beauties can be seen in the perfectly absurd explanation they are attempting to peddle regarding the timing of President Trump’s release of the embargoed aid package to Ukraine. We’re told that our super honest President only held back the money and weapons for Ukraine until Mr. Trump was sure that new Ukrainian President, Zelensky, was fully engaged in fighting Ukrainian corruption. The moment President Trump felt sure there was a new Sheriff in town to stamp out Ukrainian corruption, the aid was let loose.
Here’s how Devin Nunes and GOP minority of the House Intelligence Committee expressed it:
“President Trump was reluctant to meet with President Zelensky for a different reason—Ukraine’s long history of pervasive corruption and uncertainty about whether President Zelensky would break from this history and live up to his anti-corruption campaign platform.” (Minority at 14)
“The security assistance was ultimately disbursed to Ukraine in September 2019 without any Ukrainian action to investigate President Trump’s political rival.” (Minority at 64)
What can we conclude from Trump’s release of the military aid despite the vigorously corruption fighting Ukrainian President Zelensky’s lack of any intention to investigate or prosecute Hunter Biden or Burisma? After all, Hunter Biden and Burisma were offered up, in President Trump’s phone call with President Zelensky, as the poster children for Ukrainian corruption.
It follows, like day from night, that when President Trump released the aid, he implicitly approved Ukraine not even looking into Hunter Biden or his relationship with Burisma. But, of course, in Trump/GOP World, even night and day aren’t sure things, if they should ever become inconvenient to Republican lies and coverups.
In our Brave New World of lies, with logic on holiday, seeking sense in GOP words is similar to wrestling with a pig. Both sides get filthy, but the pig likes it. Nevertheless, the GOP explanation for the timing of the release of the Ukrainian aid, if words have meaning and logic has sway, exonerates the younger Biden and his Ukrainian employer of corruption.
So, the answer to the title question is clearly Yes. And, No.