The transcript of Trump’s infamous call was censored

Certain problematic areas were hidden in the ellipses

“Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that the White House transcript of a July call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president omitted crucial words and phrases, and that his attempts to include them failed, according to three people familiar with the testimony.

The omissions, Colonel Vindman said, included Mr. Trump’s assertion that there were recordings of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. discussing Ukraine corruption, and an explicit mention by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, of Burisma Holdings, the energy company whose board employed Mr. Biden’s son Hunter.

Colonel Vindman, who appeared on Capitol Hill wearing his dark blue Army dress uniform and military medals, told House impeachment investigators that he tried to change the reconstructed transcript made by the White House staff to reflect the omissions. But while some of his edits appeared to have been successful, he said, those two corrections were not made.”

As usual, the right-wing response is to attack this man. Although that is despicable, I understand completely. It is not possible to dispute the facts, so they have no other option.

6 thoughts on “The transcript of Trump’s infamous call was censored

  1. UncleScoopy said: “As usual, the right-wing response is to attack this man. Although that is despicable, I understand completely. It is not possible to dispute the facts, so they have no other option.”

    That’s true, I guess, if you assume that NOT being despicable was not an option.

  2. Don’t call it a transcript, it never was one. It’s been clear from the start – the transcript is under codename security, what Trump released was his edit.

    1. Yes, but what Trump released was also “under codename security”, so it all amounts to the same thing. He can release whatever he wants — and can call it a transcript or not — but the fact that the transcript of the call was placed under heightened security doesn’t change anything. It takes exactly the same level of authority to release a transcript from normal secrecy as from heightened secrecy. Yes, what Trump released was his edit. But what was placed in codename security was an edit too, made by people working for Trump. Just like the released edit was.

      1. They were going for verbatim accuracy. He was trying (and failing) to make himself look good. Again: incompetent, but at least in an entertaining way.

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