Former U.S. Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker "put a dagger straight to the heart" of Rep. Adam Schiff's "fairy tale impeachment story," Rep. Lee Zeldin, who was present during Volker's closed-door interview, said Friday.
"He came across as candid, genuine," said the New York Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "He was very well versed on Ukraine, and years and really decades of background here. He knew all the players, the pronunciation of their names and the spellings. I thought he was a great witness."
But most of all, Volker "basically just destroyed" the narrative driving talk of President Donald Trump's impeachment inquiry, said Zeldin.
"First off, the allegation that Ukraine would be providing some type of assistance with regards to an investigation in return for security aid — they had no idea there was a hold on security aid at the time of that call," said Zeldin, concerning the telephone call between Trump and Ukraine's president. "As a matter of fact, there was a lot of interaction with Kurt Volker that took place in the weeks to follow the July 25th phone call between the two presidents."
Meanwhile, he said he thinks the entire transcript of the Volker meeting should be made public, including texts that were released, not just "drip-by-drip" items being released to the public.
"The president made it crystal clear to other representatives who were part of this text exchange that there was no quid pro quo," said Zeldin. "That is what this situation is. That's why that was shot down."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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