More damning evidence came out of the House’s impeachment inquiry Tuesday, as House lawmakers released the transcript of Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s closed-door testimony. Sondland, a Trump appointee who earned his ambassadorship after donating $1 million to President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, had initially protected his boss by saying he “didn’t recall” ever knowing about a quid pro quo arrangement in Ukraine, which allegedly made military aid conditional on Ukraine publicly declaring an investigation into Trump’s political rivals. But subsequent witness testimonies suggesting that Sondland very much knew about the administration’s Ukraine scheme—and the ensuing threat of perjury charges against him—appeared to jog the ambassador’s memory. “I said that resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland suddenly “recollect[ed]” about a conversation he had with Andriy Yermak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At another point in Sondland’s testimony, the transcript revealed, he said he “assume[d]” that Trump pushing Ukraine to investigate his political rivals would be illegal.
While multiple witnesses have already testified about the tie between the military aid and Ukraine investigating Trump’s political rivals, the new testimony from Sondland, an obvious Trump ally who can’t be dismissed as a “Never Trumper,” seems particularly damaging. Republicans, however, remain unfazed by the new allegations—if they’re even bothering to pay attention to them at all.
Per Politico, the reaction to Sondland’s testimony from the Republican senators who may decide Trump’s fate was ultimately “who cares?”, as GOP lawmakers openly professed Tuesday to not knowing, or particularly caring, about what the ambassador’s deposition entailed. “What difference does it make? This is all out in the public, with the [summary] the president put out two or three months ago. It doesn’t make any difference what anybody else said,” Senator Chuck Grassley told Politico. No Republicans interviewed by Politico said they had thoroughly read previous deposition transcripts released on Monday—though some said they may catch up later—and “none said Tuesday said that Sondland’s testimony was bad news for Trump.” “There’s been several folks that have testified that they think that it was not only inappropriate but that there was a quid pro quo,” Sen. Mike Braun said. “And I’m going to base it upon, not someone’s opinion, but what I actually see. So far that is the transcript for me.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, harshly dismissed Sondland’s transcript Tuesday, telling reporters that he had no intention of reading either it or the transcript from former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker‘s testimony. “I’ve written the whole process off … I think this is a bunch of B.S.” Graham told reporters Tuesday. The South Carolina lawmaker had previously held a more open view, saying in October on Axios on HBO that he could be persuaded on impeachment in the case of a quid pro quo. “Show me something that is a crime,” Graham said when asked what it would take to support impeachment. “If you could show me that Trump was actually engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing.”
The GOP’s new “ignorance is bliss” strategy comes as Republicans continue to flounder on their response to the increasingly damaging impeachment inquiry. Democrats thwarted Republicans’ initial attempts to discredit the impeachment process by attacking the House’s procedures, as House leadership called an official House vote on impeachment and moved to make the process more transparent. (That the newly-released transcripts are in part a response to the GOP’s calls for increased transparency, of course, makes lawmakers’ complete disregard for them all the more shocking.) More recently, the Washington Post reported Friday, some Republican lawmakers have raised the idea of giving in and acknowledging that there was definitely a quid pro quo—but arguing that basing congressionally-approved foreign aid on an investigation into the president’s political rivals is actually totally fine and legal. “Look, if I believed everything the Democrats are saying, I would still say this isn’t an impeachable offense,” Rep. Tom Cole said Sunday on Meet the Press. That tactic, however, has already drawn the president’s ire, as Trump continues to insist there was no quid pro quo. Trump responded to the Post story Sunday on Twitter, writing, “False stories are being reported that a few Republican Senators are saying that President Trump may have done a quid pro quo, but it doesn’t matter, there is nothing wrong with that, it is not an impeachable event.” “Perhaps so, but read the transcript, there is no quid pro quo!” Trump added.