Mick Mulvaney Just Gave Away the Game on Ukraine

He admitted to the quid pro quo, hoping the Trump rule of doing-bad-things-in-public still holds.

Acting White House Chief Of Staff Mick Mulvaney Briefs Press At White House
Win McNameeGetty Images

Look, we pretty much knew there was a quid pro quo, not least because Donald Trump insisted there wasn't a quid pro quo. Also, the most senior diplomat in Ukraine—well, he was the most senior after the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine was ousted because she was not playing along with Rudy Giuliani's ratfucking over there—dropped off some texts for Congress and the public to look at which clearly showed two instances of quid pro quo.

In the first, Trump dangled a bilateral meeting the Ukrainians desperately sought with the American president while strongly hinting that they open an investigation into a conspiracy theory that would muddy the waters around Russia's attack on the 2016 election. Later, Trump withheld military aid Ukraine desperately needed to fend off Russian aggression while simultaneously signaling that Ukraine needed to open that investigation plus an additional one into his political opponent, Joe Biden. In the latter case, the American president was once again inviting a foreign power to meddle in an American election for his personal gain, another violation of his oath of office.

Anyway, once you saw the texts, things were pretty clear. Over the ensuing days and weeks, we've learned that White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney played a very prominent role indeed. It was Mulvaney who placed a hold on the military aid, and the acting chief was reportedly abreast of what a lot of Giuliani and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland were up to as they developed a shadow foreign policy towards Ukraine—one that served the president's interests, not the nation's. Trump's former top Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, testified this week that former National Security Adviser John Bolton once announced that he was "not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up."

Yes, it sounds like Ol' Mick is in a bit of a hole. So he held a press conference today and proceeded to keep digging.


In between stuttering, sweaty syllables you can hear the White House Chief of Staff admit to the quid pro quo. No investigation? No money. He tried to hand-wave it away by saying "we do this all the time," and cited the aid for the Northern Triangle countries—Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—that the Trump administration held up until they changed their immigration policies. But it is not the same. While that move was counterproductive (cutting aid to desperate countries is not going to lead fewer people to leave those desperate places), it was technically with an eye on the national interest. Who comes across the border, and how many do, is a concern for the United States.

On the flip side, this absurd investigation into some conspiracy theory about a server in Ukraine is not in the national interest, particularly compared to keeping Ukraine out of Russia's clutches. It is nonsense, but it's nonsense that it is in the president's interests for Ukraine to "investigate"—or at least announce an investigation into, which Trump could talk about for months and months.

You can see the strategy, though. Mulvaney steered clear of the Biden investigation Trump asked the Ukrainians for, because that is so obviously a case where he turned American foreign policy into a vehicle to promote his personal interests. Mulvaney concentrated on the other probe, did some mouth-movements about corruption, cited other examples where they've held up aid, and tried to pass the whole fiasco off as quotidian. And of course he followed the essential Trump principle: if you say it in public, nobody will think you're committing a crime.

There's no escaping, however, that Trump laid out the talking point from day one—No Quid Pro Quo!—and the entire Republican Party followed it and now Mulavney just torpedoed it. Don't expect anyone to acknowledge this shameless maneuver. Today, quid pro quo is good and happens all the time. By tomorrow, they might be saying there was no quid pro quo again. And by the way, there didn't even need to be quid pro quo in this case for it to be an impeachable offense. The president has admitted in public that he subjugated the national interest to his personal political interest when it comes to Ukraine. It's not the first time.

Update: Mick Mulvaney has officially begun the walkback. From The Hill:

“Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election,” Mulvaney said. “The president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server.”
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