Fox News Host Confronts Mick Mulvaney Over Quid Pro Quo Remarks: ‘You Totally Said That’
On Sunday, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney got into a heated exchange with Fox News’ anchor Chris Wallace, Raw Story reports.
Mulvaney went on Fox News Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the Trump-Ukraine saga, in which he is now a central figure.
Earlier this week, Mulvaney appeared to accidentally admit that President Donald Trump had a quid pro quo agreement with the government of Ukraine.
During a press conference, the White House official seemingly suggested that Trump withheld aid from Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate the Democratic Party.
Mulvaney later attempted to walk back his admission, but with almost no success.
Today, he came across intense push-back from Wallace.
The host told Mulvaney that he had “flinched” by essentially admitting quid pro quo.
“That’s not what I said, that’s what people said I said,” the White House official responded.
“Here’s what I said… there were two reasons that we held up the aid,” he added, despite the fact that he actually said during the hectic press briefing that the aid had been withheld for “three reasons,” one of which had to do with the Democratic Party.
“I believe that anyone listening to what you said in that briefing room can come to one conclusion,” Wallace responded and then played a video recording of Mulvaney’s press conference.
“Go back and watch what I said before that,” the White House official pleaded with the host, but Wallace remained unfazed.
“You totally said that,” Wallace told Mulvaney, “you didn’t mention two conditions, you mentioned three conditions.”
He then played the recording of the press conference once again.
Watch Mick Mulvaney melt down in real time from this morning’s interview with Chris Wallace. #Mulvaney pic.twitter.com/gDcgZwav9a
— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) October 20, 2019
The claims of a quid pro quo agreement between Trump and Ukraine are central to the impeachment inquiry House of Representative launched in September.
According to an anonymous intelligence community whistleblower, Trump collaborated with the government of Ukraine in order to damage a political opponent.
According to the whistleblower, the president threatened to withdraw military aid unless Ukraine investigates Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.
Trump was calling for investigations because he wanted to damage Biden’s presidential bid, according to the whistleblower.
According to House Democrats, the transcript of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proves that there was indeed a quid pro quo between the two parties, which is an impeachable offense.
Biden and his son have denied any wrongdoing, with the former vice president arguing that Trump is targeting him because he would be a strong opponent in the general election.
