Trump uses Rick Scott quote to defend Ukraine call — but that’s not what Scott said
President Donald Trump spent a 17 minute press conference with the President of Finland on Wednesday name-dropping Republicans who’ve defended his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the call that triggered a burgeoning impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.
One of the defenders who impressed Trump: Florida Sen. Rick Scott.
“I heard Rick Scott today say that was a perfect conversation,” Trump said. “How can they impeach him with that conversation? He read it, he’s a very smart guy from Florida, Rick Scott. And he said that was a perfect conversation, how can you impeach somebody on that conversation?”
But Scott, a Republican who makes frequent TV appearances and rarely strays off message, never said Trump’s phone call was a “perfect conversation.”
Scott made a Wednesday morning appearance on Fox News minutes before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff, both Democrats, held a televised news conference to answer questions about the impeachment inquiry. During his six-minute interview, Scott defended the president, saying that “if we’re going to impeach the president, there ought to be something they did wrong.”
“I still don’t see what the crime is,” Scott said on Fox News. “I keep saying, show me what the crime is. No one ever says that. They say he shouldn’t have done it. Well, all of us would do things differently than other people would do it but if we’re going to impeach somebody there ought to be something they did wrong.”
In multiple interviews since a transcript of the Zelensky call was publicly released on September 24, Scott has defended the president against an impeachment inquiry from Democrats, though he did not endorse the contents of the call.
“When you read the transcript, the president says things differently than I would say them but, again, what they’re talking about, is there a violation of law?” Scott said in an interview with Spectrum News last week. “I didn’t see it. No one’s shown me a law that the president has violated.”
During the July 25 phone call, Zelensky expressed an interest in buying U.S. missiles and Trump said Zelensky should “look into” the unfounded claim that former Vice President Joe Biden, now running for the Democratic nomination for president, stopped a prosecutor from investigating a Ukrainian natural gas company where Biden’s son Hunter was on the board. Democrats allege the contents of the call amount to a quid pro quo involving a political rival.
“They’re [Democrats] talking about impeaching the president,” Scott said in an interview with the Miami Herald last week. “Tell me the law they’re going to go after?”
Scott made similar remarks during his Fox News interview on Wednesday.
“I don’t see what the issue is. I think this is just the Democrats, they hate Trump,” Scott said. “I’ve been in D.C. for nine months, the Democrats just hate Donald Trump. They don’t like what happened in 2016 and they are working hard to make sure he doesn’t win in 2020. That’s all it is.”
Trump continued to criticize a whistleblower who raised concerns over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine during the Wednesday press conference. The anonymous whistleblower’s identity is protected by law.
“This country has to find out who this person was, because this person’s a spy, in my opinion,” Trump said.
This story was originally published October 2, 2019 at 3:23 PM.