REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
While still a presidential candidate, Donald Trump pushed the Republican National Committee to abandon its platform of arming Ukrainian soldiers in their fight against Russian forces, NPR reported Monday. Republican delegate Diana Denman, who supported arming Ukrainian forces, is reportedly set to testify before the House and Senate Intelligence committees this week to describe the Trump campaign’s alleged efforts to change the party’s Ukraine-related platform during the Republican National Convention in 2016. Through an aide, Trump allegedly argued against arming Ukrainian forces, in favor of a more Russia-friendly platform of more general “assistance” to Ukrainians. The RNC eventually adopted the Trump campaign's platform. The platform change is of interest to the Russia investigation, which is probing whether the Trump campaign had communications with Russian officials or adopted Kremlin-favored stances before the election.