President Donald Trump’s decision to release a summary of a phone call with the Ukrainian president suggesting Trump pushed him to investigate Joe Biden’s son has not gone over well in the White House, a new report claims.
On Wednesday, Trump authorized the release of a summary of a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked him to look into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president. Though Trump had described the call as “perfect,” it led to widespread backlash and accusations that Trump was using the pressure of withheld military aid in an attempt to press Ukraine into investigating a political rival.
The summary’s release has now divided the White House, Axios reported. The report noted that some top advisers quickly regretted making the call public, saying it was worse than Trump had led his allies to believe. While the call didn’t explicitly spell out a quid pro quo, it did show Trump asking Zelensky for the “favor” of investigating Biden immediately after the Ukrainian president mentioned a purchase of military weapons. Before making the call, Trump had moved to withhold $400 million in military aid to the country that is locked in a now five-year conflict with Russia.
The release looks very bad for the president, some White House sources say.
“One longtime adviser said this looks worse than anything he’s seen to date — and it’s documented,” the report noted.
There appears to be tension across the Republican Party, The Inquisitr noted in a previous report. While Republicans have been cautious to condemn Trump for the call or reports that he withheld military aid to Ukraine, there are reports that the GOP may be ready to split from the president.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday, Republican insider Mike Murphy said that Republican senators could make the unprecedented move of removing Trump from office — if they could do so anonymously.
“One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump,” said Murphy, who had previously served as a top adviser to Mitt Romney and John McCain.
The same day that report came out, Senate Republicans came together with Democrats in putting an end to Trump’s emergency declaration at the U.S. border. A total of 11 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to stop Trump from diverting military funding in order to start construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
