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>Zelensky’s “Perfect Phone Call” With Trump in 2019 Explains a Lot Right Now
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If Zelensky had launched a corrupt political probe of Biden’s son at Trump’s request, he would have lost support among Democrats.
Keep in mind, during that call, Zelensky did do everything he could to get on Trump’s good side, short of promising to actually give into Trump’s corrupt demand. Zelensky spent most of the phone call stoking Trump’s ego, saying that he was emulating Trump in his own approach to politics and even repeating his catchphrase “drain the swamp.” “You are a great teacher for us and in that,” Zelensky fawned. Once the rough transcript of the call was released following a whistleblower complaint, Zelensky was ridiculed for that obsequiousness and received further blowback for echoing Trump’s criticisms of Europe, directly disparaging major allies at Trump’s behest. The call, though, was perfect, in that Zelensky did everything he could to try to curry favor with the U.S. president—without giving into corrupt demands that could doom his country down the road.
Revelations surrounding a whistleblower complaint in Sept. 2019 were the clear impetus for the scandal, as it played out in the U.S., as well as the ultimate release of the $400 million in aid. But it seems clear that Zelensky also played a key role in bringing the matter to light. The week before Democrats launched an investigation into the withheld aid, Zelensky told Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy that Giuliani had pressed him to investigate Biden and that the security aid was still being withheld—he essentially tattled on the Trump’s personal attorney as a last resort.
At the same time, Zelensky’s fingerprints were largely kept off of the exposure of the embarrassing—potentially criminal—Trump blackmail scheme, which was largely credited to the whistleblower. Indirectly, Zelensky brought about Trump’s impeachment and earned the release of the aid to his nation without appearing to do so in a way that would infuriate Trump.
And after the early details of the quid pro quo campaign were exposed, Zelensky went out of his way to continue to appease Trump and protect his own country. When Trump and Zelensky finally had their face-to-face meeting the day the rough transcript of their call was released, the Ukrainian president was asked if Trump had pressured him to investigate the Bidens.
Zelensky played dumb and fudged the truth, but also gave Trump what he wanted this time. “You heard that we had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things and I—so I think, and you read it, that nobody push it, pushed me.” Trump translated that as “no pressure” and said straight to Zelensky’s face “I appreciate the answer.”
Again, this broken English half-denial was misleading, as testimony and phone recordings later demonstrated. But it didn’t matter. Zelensky had done what he needed to do to neither alienate Republicans, nor Democrats. He stuck to this line throughout the impeachment saga, saying at various times “there was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S.” and “it’s not about quid pro quo.” While these statements were incredibly misleading, they also did not directly address specifics of the situation about whether Trump had blackmailed him. At the same time, they gave Trump exactly what he wanted as part of his impeachment defense.
Ultimately, Zelensky accomplished his overarching goal: He appeared to refrain from interfering in American domestic politics. Only later—once Biden was in office and Trump was out—did top Ukrainian officials publicly acknowledge the full scope of the blackmail campaign and even, apparently, release recorded evidence of it.
What was the result of Zelensky’s adept handling of the episode that could have ended in greater disaster for him and his country? Bipartisan support in Washington for military aid to Ukraine that hadn’t been there before. In 2020, the year after Trump’s first impeachment, Congress approved $250 million in security aid to Ukraine and the sale of 150 Javelin anti-tank missiles, along bipartisan lines. Trump did not, apparently, try to block the move. Last year, President Biden changed the posture of the Obama administration, which had been to not arm the Ukrainians, and approved the release of $125 million in military aid and a new round of Javelin sales. This was again achieved on a bipartisan basis.