Apparently, we all need to “get over it” when it comes to notions of wrongdoing with regard to Donald Trump using his political office to enrich himself or push his personal agenda.
So said Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, on Thursday when he basically blew Trump’s cover of apparently feigned innocence as to why nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine was withheld earlier this year. He admitted the military dollars were delayed in order to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Democrats.
As writer Tina Lowe noted in a Washington Examiner column, Mulvaney “conceded,” the following in a rare White House press briefing:
that the [Trump] administration did in fact withhold congressionally-approved funding from Ukraine to push the country to investigate “the corruption related to the DNC server” in the 2016 election.
When challenged, point blank, by a reporter who said that what Mulvaney was describing was a textbook definition of a quid pro quo, he declared, “We do that all the time with foreign policy.”
Furthermore, Mulvaney continued, as Politico reports, “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy. That is going to happen. Elections have consequences, and foreign policy is going to change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration.”
Well, alrighty then.
And if you like all of that, you’ll probably love the other tidbit Mulvaney shared during the media briefing: Next year’s annual G-7 summit of the world’s major industrial powers will be held where? Why, at Trump’s very own resort, the Trump National Doral, in beautiful Miami.
But, no worries, despite appearances to the contrary, Trump will certainly not benefit from his resort being the host of seven world leaders and their entourages, Mulvaney said. Even if, as the Miami Herald reports, the struggling Doral could certainly use the financial boost.
“There’s no profit here,” Mulvaney said during the briefing, the Herald reports. “He’s not making any money off of this just like he’s not making any money off of working here.”
OK.
Trump is currently the subject of a House impeachment inquiry focused on whether he used the power of his office to benefit himself personally.
Looks like Mulvaney may just have given the Democrats a bone.