A lot has been made of whether or not there was “quid pro quo”. Did Trump actually ask for anything from Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in return for dirt on Biden and, if so, was that request actually made during the phone call and, if so, is this reflected in the “transcript”. Some Republicans deny that Trump’s request for a “favor” was paired with the promise of something in return, such as $450 million of aid. For example, according to Politico, Georgia Senator David Perdue said
There’s nothing in this document that backs up the whistleblower report,” said Perdue. The media “talked about eight quid pros in there. I can’t find one.”
So I went and read the transcript. Quid pro quo was the entire purpose of the call. The call begins with an exchange of flattery and pleasantries. Then Zolinsky gets to the first ask of the call, and Trump responds by asking for his first “favor”.
President Zelenskyy: <snip> We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next
steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.
The President: I would like you to do us a favor though
because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a
lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with
this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess
you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say
Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation .. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the
bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended
with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an
incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with
Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it
if that's possible.
There is no other way to read this than “if you give us the dirt we want, you can have your Javelin missiles”.
The call continues in this fashion; basically the call is a series of asks from each side. And honestly, probably this is what most calls between heads of state are about; each side telling the other what they want from the other. Except in this case, what Trump and his minions want is dirt on Biden delivered to Giuliani and Barr as quickly as possible.
By the way, one thing few seem to have noted is that, towards the end of the call, Zelenskyy makes a point of noting that he stayed at Trump Tower in New York the last time he was in the US. So let me quickly weigh in on another debate; should Democrats do a deep dive and prolong the impeachment hearings or do it quickly? I think they should get this done quickly while its all in the headlines. And then they should impeach him again. And then again every time some new transgression comes up. Which it will.