This tape is being presented as evidence of Trump malfeasance.
CNN presents it as proof that Trump knew a person, Lev Parnas, he'd said he didn't know. Liar! And… that the firing of Ambassador Yovanovitch as linked to his dirt” on Joe Biden.
CNN on TV, their anchors and talking heads, are making exactly the same point, that is, Trump did know Parnas. Thus, Trump: Liar! And the Biden link.
What CNN doesn't point out (does it not know?) is:
- The US Ambassador to Ukraine, Maria Yovanovitch, had been going around Kiev after the Trump inauguration assuring nervous Ukrainian officials, "don't worry about him. He will be impeached". This is briefly alluded to in the CNN report, and is in more detail in other reports. In short, she was actively working against her president and his foreign policy. That's a firing offence right there. Even apart from the fact she was an "Obama holdover" and it's common American practice for ambassadors to be replaced when the party of the presidency changes.
- This was in 2018, well before Joe Biden had declared his candidacy. The whole impeachment trial is about Trump's alleged attempt to get "dirt" on Biden as a rival in 2020. How can the firing of Yovanovitch in 2018 — for gross insubordination— be relevant to the current trial? In short, it cannot.
I think it speaks volumes not just to CNN bias, but more, to their delusion: that they think this recording somehow helps their case. It doesn't. It helps Trump. And Trump's defence team ought to be welcoming it on those grounds: that the firing of the ambassador was for disloyalty to her president, and pursuit of it reveals the agenda to get Trump at any cost.
As for Teump not recalling who Parnas was… who?
