House

Gaetz: Some lawmakers reviewed transcript at White House

by Justine Coleman - 09/25/19 12:32 PM ET

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he and a group of lawmakers reviewed and spoke with President Trump about the memo of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House Wednesday.

“I’ve had the chance to review the transcripts and chat with the president about them,” Gaetz told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson.

Gaetz and other Republicans got early peek at the WH call memo this morning with Trump pic.twitter.com/evMGaZXpCH

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 25, 2019

When pressed by Jackson about who attended the White House meeting and whether the group included Republicans or Democrats, Florida representative said it was “a group of legislators.”

“I didn’t check anybody’s voter registration card,” Gaetz said.

Separately, Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) said he was also in the group of Republican lawmakers who got to review the memo at White House.

Johnson said identified other Republican lawmakers who were also present as Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), David Perdue (Ga.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), James Risch (Idaho), as well as Reps. Devin Nunes (Cali.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mark Meadows (N.C.), and Doug Collins (Ga.).

The representative defended the president saying no wrongdoing was committed in the phone call, in which he said the presidents commended each other for fighting corruption.

“The bottom line here is: In this transcript there’s no quid pro quo, there’s no improper leverage and the overall tone of this transcript is that it’s mutually laudatory,” he said.

{mosads}The White House released a memorandum of the phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky Wednesday after mounting pressure from Democrats.

The release confirmed previous reports of the call that said the president asked Zelensky to “look into” former Vice President Joe Biden after withholding military aid from the country days earlier. This exchange has provoked debates over whether Trump offered a quid pro quo to the Ukrainian president.

The call came to Congress’s attention after the Trump administration refused to provide the House Intelligence Committee with a whistleblower report on the conversation that was subpoenaed. Media reports soon revealed the whistleblower report referred to this conversation.

Several Democratic House members have voiced their support for an impeachment inquiry following news of the conversation, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday.

— Updated at 2:38 p.m.