Fact-check demolishes Trump’s bogus account of first impeachment

19 March 2024

Donald Trump is not only the only former president in U.S. history to face four criminal indictments at once — he is also the only ex-U.S. president who was impeached twice.

The second impeachment, following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, involved Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results — while the first involved his attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into digging up dirt on now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. In both of his impeachment trials in the U.S. Senate, Trump was acquitted.

The 2024 GOP presidential nominee recalled the first impeachment during a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday, March 16. And a biting fact-check by the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler explains why Trump's account of that impeachment was inaccurate.

In Dayton, Trump railed against "shifty" Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), claiming that the congressman — who is running for the U.S. Senate — "made up my conversation that I had with the president of Ukraine."

Kessler, in a column published on March 19, explains, "As president, he attacked Rep. Schiff (D-Calif.) 90 times for supposedly making up a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The conversation — which occurred in a not-made-up phone call on July 25, 2019 — was at the center of Trump's impeachment. Trump, later in his rally speech, suggested he had hoodwinked Schiff by releasing 'a tape' of his conversation and exposing Schiff's dishonesty. But Trump had it backward."

Kessler continues, "The White House, on September 25, 2019, released a rough transcript, cobbled together from notes of participants — and then, Schiff spoke about it at a congressional hearing a day later. Schiff's error was that he summarized the transcript for dramatic effect, rather than letting it speak for itself."

Kessler notes that during his July 25, 2019 conservation with Zelensky, Trump was more "subtle" than Schiff described him as being. But the conversation, Kessler writes, really did occur — and Trump really did want dirt on the Bidens.

"Trump asked for an investigation of Joe Biden, his potential 2020 rival, and suggested that without such a probe, Zelensky would not receive needed weapons," Kessler recalls. "Zelensky also wanted a firm date for a White House meeting, which Trump dangled but did not deliver."

The Washington Post fact-checker continues, "No matter how often Trump spins this as a 'perfect' call, this was not a typical presidential conversation with a foreign leader. White House aides who listened to the call at the time later told congressional investigators that Trump's language calling for a probe of his election opponent was 'wrong' and 'unusual and inappropriate.'"

Read Glenn Kessler's full Washington Post column at this link (subscription required).

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