Ted Lieu Blasts Donald Trump, Asks Him To Reveal How Many Times He Has ‘Betrayed Our Country’
California Rep. Ted Lieu took to Twitter on Sunday to share harsh words for President Trump in a tweet that saw the Democrat encouraging the White House to release more summarized transcripts of calls that the president has had with foreign leaders.
“Dear @realDonaldTrump: FYI Below,” Lieu said. “The American people and Congress would welcome the @WhiteHouse releasing more summarized transcripts of your ‘perfect’ calls with foreign powers. How many times have you betrayed our country?”
Lieu shared a tweet from Politico Senior Legal Affairs Contributor Josh Gerstein that shared news that a federal judge had last week required the president and his administration to preserve records of phone calls that he had with foreign leaders. Per the article, published Saturday by Politico, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman ordered the Trump administration to not destroy any records of “meetings, phone calls, and other communications with foreign leaders.”
As Politico noted, Berman, an Obama-appointed federal judge, also seemed to reference a particular element of the whistleblower complaint that was filed in August when she ordered the White House to maintain “all records of efforts by White House or other executive branch officials to return, ‘claw back,’ ‘lock down’ or recall White House records.” Reports suggest that the White House has stored records of potentially-damaging conversations the president has had with foreign leaders on areas meant for classified information in an attempt to “lock down” records of the conversations.
Trump has repeatedly said that his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 was “perfect.” He has claimed that, as the president, it is his “duty” to ask foreign leaders to investigate claims of U.S. corruption. According to a summarized transcript of the call the White House released in late September, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader for a “favor” before mentioning conspiracies relating to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and relating to former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Trump has offered various excuses for the call, and on Saturday he defended it by reigniting long-debunked claims that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — Trump’s 2016 rival — used acid to permanently erase emails from one of her servers. He has made these claims since his 2016 campaign for the White House, despite the fact that they are untrue.
Sunday wasn’t the first time that Lieu, who has served in Congress since 2015, has blasted Republicans on social media. Late Saturday, the outspoken legislator took to Twitter to target U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In a tweet that invited Pompeo to “show some honor,” Lieu accused him of lying following his defense of the president’s conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, was involved in interfering in the 2016 election.
Also on Saturday, Lieu issued a similar message to House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, following comments the GOP leader made on Fox News and shared on Twitter.
Dear @GOPLeader: Have you read the summarized transcript yet?
Or the text messages from diplomats?
Or watched the remarks of @realDonaldTrump on the South Lawn?
Or read the procedures for IC whistleblowers?
Also, how come so many Members in your caucus are resigning/retiring? https://t.co/xCTPnEMT2l
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 5, 2019
