Trump is of course in favor of ending the corruption in Ukraine. And bolstering their military.
That explains why his conversations with Ukraine's president never mentioned corruption.
And before the aid was held up, Ukraine had already been certified as meeting the anti-corruption requirements we (the US) had set for them.
It would seem fine and perfectly appropriate to hold up aid if the “president” was concerned about corruption even beyond the requirements set by the State Dept. That would be all good.
What would be strange would be to hold up the aid for this reason and not tell anyone. Not Congress (despite their repeatedly asking) and not the Ukrainians themselves (despite their repeatedly asking.)
There is no documented ask from the Trump Administration saying effectively “We are holding up your aid until you address corruption.” Wouldn’t there be? All other examples that Republicans keep pointing to when aid is held up for national interests, I imagine that those national interests were communicated with the parties involved.
Yet for
some reason the only communication to the Ukrainians when meetings with the WH and military aid came up were about investigations of Trump’s political opponents related to the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Huh.
And then they try to argue no Quid Pro Quo on the aid because Trump never explicitly made the connection. What the hell else were the Ukrainians supposed to think?