President Donald Trump’s remarks to reporters Wednesday are going viral, and one might wonder what level of co-ordination it takes to make that happen.
The President appeared on the White House lawn Wednesday with notes scratched on a pad in big black marker during the damning, bombshell testimony of his Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.
Trump’s words were clear and direct, and he read from his notes to reporters – an extremely rare event given this president who generally talks off the top of his head with the press several days a week.
“I WANT NOTHING, I WANT NOTHING, I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO,” his notes read, and the president said those words in front of reporters.
Trump was speaking about Ukraine, and his bribery scheme for which he currently is speeding toward being impeached.
It’s important to note, as CNN’s Marshall Cohen did, that this new “script” is totally in conflict with Trump’s comments that the White House released from the July 25 call summary:
Attorney, commentator, and writer for Yahoo News and Just Security, Luppe Luppen, posted a copy of the photo a reporter took of the president’s notes.
Luppen offers this insight, apparently suggesting Sondland and Trump might be trying to keep their stories straight.
Those words also made their way into a Trump tweet:
And in comments during the impeachment hearings – courtesy of top Trump defender Rep. Jim Jordan and another Republican.
And then in a Fox News segment – which Trump just happened to see and tweet out almost immediately:
The White House press secretary also tweeted out the same script:
But many are clear: Trump wanted something.