“Over the last two weeks, [senior director for European and Russian affairs on Trump’s National Security Council (NSC)] Fiona Hill and [U.S. acting Ambassador to Ukraine] William Taylor and [NSC official] Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman–all of them top foreign policy officials for this president–have all testified about repeated instances where they saw that support for Ukraine was dependent on Ukraine investigating the Bidens,” Wallace pointed out during an interview with Conway on Fox News Sunday. “Isn’t that the definition of a quid pro quo?” he asked.
Conway responded by saying that Ukraine now has the military aid, which was temporarily withheld. She also attempted to deflect the question by arguing that Trump had given more significant support to Ukraine than former President Barack Obama. But Wallace interjected, saying she was “missing the point.”
“The way the aid was withheld until–” he said, before Conway interrupted. She insisted that Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky don’t see a problem with what happened, arguing that is what matters the most.
“Doesn’t it matter that the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, currently the acting ambassador, William Taylor, said there was a quid pro quo?” Wallace asked. “Does it matter that Lt. Colonel Vindman, who was actually on the call [between Trump and Zelensky] was so upset about it afterwards that he went to see the NSC lawyer?”
Conway said she took issue with the “interpretation” of the situation raised by the Trump administration officials. “We cannot impeach a president of the United States based on the interpretation of any staffer, Vindman, me, anyone else,” she argued.
As Wallace pointed out to Conway, multiple officials appointed by Trump have corroborated that nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine was temporarily withheld to the country in an effort to pressure Ukrainian leaders to open investigations into unsubstantiated claims about the business dealings of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, as well as into a debunked conspiracy theory about Democrats and the 2016 election. Vindman, who Wallace cited specifically, warned in his opening testimony to congressional investigators that the Trump administration’s efforts could “undermine U.S. national security.”
During a separate interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Conway stated that she did not know whether the military aid was withheld in connection with the president’s desired investigations.
“I don’t know,” she said, when asked about the funds and whether they were withheld as part of the pressure campaign. “But I know they’ve got their aid.”
