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Trump: I Asked Ukraine Do a Favor for the U.S., Not Myself

The president has attempted to clarify what he meant when he asked the Ukrainian president to “do us a favor.”

It’s a sentence that’s absolutely key to the impeachment inquiry against him, and President Trump has sought to clarify what he meant when he asked the Ukrainian President to “do us a favor.” The request came on the infamous phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on July 25. A rough transcript of the call shows Zelensky bringing up the possibility of buying more U.S. missiles, before Trump says: “I would like you to do us a favor though.” He went on to ask Zelensky to look into Ukraine’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, and to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. House Democrats say Trump abused the power of his office for personal gain by asking Ukraine to investigate a potential 2020 rival. But Trump insisted in a tweet late Wednesday that he didn’t mean himself when he said “us,” writing: “When I said, in my phone call to the President of Ukraine, ‘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.’ With the word “us” I am referring to the United States, our Country.”