House minority whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) got called out for lying about Donald Trump's infamous phone call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
A reporter asked Scalise whether he had changed his view on Trump's attempted extortion scheme against Zelensky, for which he was impeached a first time in 2019 by the House but later acquitted by a Republican-led Senate, and the Louisiana Republican inaccurately described the call between the two world leaders.
"If you look at that conversation, President Zelenskyy had called President Trump to thank him for the leadership," Scalise said.
In reality, based on a transcript released by the White House and testimony from impeachment witnesses, Trump paused congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskyy to help him find damaging information to use against Joe Biden in the presidential campaign.
Social media users hit Scalise with a round of fact-checking.
Watch below.
Steve Scalise faces furious backlash for ‘outright lying’ about Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky www.youtube.com
HaHaHa\n\nExcept it's not funny. Trump tried to extort "a favor" from Zelensky - opening a meritless investigation into Joe Biden, in exchange for releasing security aid Congress had voted to send Ukraine. The House impeached Trump for it. Only Romney voted w/ Democrats to convict.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Joyce Alene (@Joyce Alene) 1646764248
Scalise rewriting Trump's phone call with Zelenskiy. In fact, Trump was impeached for trying to strong-arm Zelenskiy into providing "non-existent" dirt on Biden in return for the release of U.S. weapons supplies, including Javelin ATGMs.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Jonathan Landay (@Jonathan Landay) 1646761980
This is a great question that should be asked of all Republicans over and over. It's too bad Scalise's response was an obvious farce, given that Zelenskyy was clearly trying to flatter a narcissist president who was illegally withholding aid in hopes of getting political dirt.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Robert Maguire (@Robert Maguire) 1646758730
Still defending Trump\u2019s blackmail of Zelensky. Still.https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Susan Glasser (@Susan Glasser) 1646761774
Scalise outright lying about Trump\u2019s \u201cperfect phone call\u201d on Sept. 25, 2019 with #Ukraine\u2019s Zelenskyy. \n\nThe Call: \u201cIn the summary, Zelensky asks Trump for an increase in military aid \u2014 specifically, to purchase more Javelin anti-tank missiles\u2026\u201d\n\nLink: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/25/20883420/full-transcript-trump-ukraine-zelensky-white-house\u00a0\u2026https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— M. Belanger (@M. Belanger) 1646763015
I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people...https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Molly Jong-Fast (@Molly Jong-Fast) 1646760399
These motherfuckers must think Nobody has a Calendar or that time moves laterally. @SteveScalise thinks Zelensky and Viktor Yanukovych are THE SAME PERSON. And the @GOP wishes they Were.https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1501232992521392129\u00a0\u2026— Hal Sparks (@Hal Sparks) 1646760520
Don't let people like Steve Scalise gaslight you on what happened: Trump illegally withheld military aid from Ukraine in an attempt to extort Zelenskyy into setting up the Bidens. He got impeached for it, and Scalise and every other Republican in the House voted to let him off.— Citizens for Ethics (@Citizens for Ethics) 1646764610
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