California Democrat Maxine Waters claimed Donald Trump will invite Vladimir Putin to the White House next year if he is not removed from office.
Waters was responding to reports that White House officials feared the Russian president had heavily influenced Trump’s views on Ukraine, specifically a conspiracy theory that Kiev had meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.
In a tweet, Waters, who is a vocal critic of Trump, claimed: ‘Revelation by former WH officials proves what we’ve known all along: Trump is #PutinsPuppet.
‘Trump repeated Putin’s talking point that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the ‘16 election. Mark my words. If the Senate doesn’t remove him, Trump will invite Putin to the WH next yr.’
According to The Washington Post article, Trump seemingly believed an argument from Putin that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 election.
California Democrat Maxine Waters, (left), claimed Donald Trump, (right), will invite Vladimir Putin to the White House if he is not removed from office
Waters tweeted in response to reports that White House officials feared the Russian President influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign
One former senior White House official told the outlet that Trump knew Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 campaign because ‘Putin told me.’
Another aide claimed Trump said: ‘He would say “This is ridiculous. Everyone knows I won the election. The greatest election in the world. The Russians didn’t do anything. The Ukrainians tried to do something,”‘ one former official said.
Trump could not give any proof of his believe that Ukraine was involved in systematic interference.
Congressional Republicans have pressed the discredited theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. election in defending President Donald Trump in Wednesday’s impeachment hearings.
In November, Republican Devin Nunes, said at the impeachment inquiry: ‘The Democrats cooperated in Ukrainian election meddling.
‘Officials showed a surprising lack of interest in the indications of Ukrainian election meddling that deeply concerned the president at whose pleasure they serve.’
However the theory that Ukrainians interfered in the U.S. election and that Democrats cooperated in that effort is unsubstantiated.
If U.S. officials showed a lack of interest in pursuing the matter, it’s because they considered it “fiction,” as one put it.
Trump himself was told by his officials that the theory was ‘completely debunked’ long before the president pressed Ukraine to investigate it anyway, according to Tom Bossert, Trump’s first homeland security adviser.
In testimony at the closed-door hearings that preceded Wednesday’s public session, Fiona Hill, former special assistant to Trump on the National Security Council, said it was bogus.
One former senior White House official told the outlet that Trump knew Ukraine interfered in the 2016 campaign because ‘Putin told me.’ The two leaders are pictured at the G20 Osaka Summit 2019, in Japan
Maxine Waters was one of the first members of Congress to call for Trump’s impeachment
‘It is a fiction that the Ukrainian government was launching an effort to upend our election,’ Hill testified.
‘I’m extremely concerned that this is a rabbit hole that we’re all going to go down in between now and the 2020 election, and it will be to all of our detriment.’
The theory alleges that a hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 was a setup designed to cast blame on Russia but actually cooked up by or with the help of Ukrainians. But the evidence points conclusively to Russia, not Ukraine.
Trump is in Florida after his historic impeachment, while plans for his speedy trial back in Washington remained clouded.
Senate leaders jockeying for leverage have failed to agree on procedures for the trial.
Trump is still expected to be acquitted of both charges in the Senate, where Republicans have the majority, in what will be only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. Proceedings are expected to begin in January.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia on December 19
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has so far not sent the articles of impeachment to the Senate – have left the situation unresolved
But the impasse between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer over whether there will be new witnesses and testimony – along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal so far to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate – have left the situation unresolved.
“Nancy Pelosi is looking for a Quid Pro Quo with the Senate. Why aren´t we Impeaching her?” Trump tweeted, mocking one of the accusations against him before heading out for a two-week stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the holidays.
McConnell, Trump’s most powerful GOP ally in the Senate, welcomed the president’s emerging defense team Friday for a walk-through of the Senate chamber.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and legislative affairs director Eric Ueland came to Capitol Hill to assess logistics.
‘We have this fascinating situation where, following House Democrats´ rush to impeachment, following weeks of pronouncements about the urgency of this situation, the prosecutors have now developed cold feet,’ McConnell, R-Ky., said late Thursday as senators left town for the year.
‘We´ll continue to see how this develops, and whether the House Democrats ever work up the courage to take their accusations to trial.’
McConnell appears to have united Republicans behind an approach that would begin the trial with presentations and arguments, lasting perhaps two weeks, before he tries drawing the proceedings to a close. The Senate will reconvene January 3.
That has sparked a fight with Pelosi and Schumer, who are demanding trial witnesses who refused to appear during House committee hearings, including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
“They should have witnesses and documentation,” Pelosi told The Associated Press. “This could be something very beneficial to the country, if the facts are there.”