Trump responds to Gordon Sondland testimony: ‘No Quid Pro Quo’

In talking to reporters at the White House, President Trump on Wednesday responded to testimony by US Ambassador Gordon Sondland in the House impeachment hearings.

“I’m going to go very quickly, just a quick comment on what’s going on in terms of testimony with Ambassador Sondland,” Trump told reporters. “I just noticed one thing, and I would say it’s all over.”

Trump then recounted testimony from Sondland about a phone call the two had.

“It was a very short and abrupt conversation that he had with me,” Trump said.

“This is the final word from the president of the United States,” he said. “I want nothing. He said, ‘What do you want, what do you want’ … and now here’s my response that he gave, just gave. Ready, have the cameras rolling, ‘I want nothing, that’s what I want from Ukraine,’ that’s what I said.”

He quoted from handwritten notes summarizing his call with the ambassador, saying he told Sondland: “I want nothing, I want nothing, I want no quid pro quo.”

Hours later, the president was back on Twitter offering more words on the proceedings.

“Impeachment Witch Hunt is now OVER! Ambassador Sondland asks U.S. President (me): ‘What do you want from Ukraine? I keep hearing all these different ideas & theories. What do you want? It was a very abrupt conversation. He was not in a good mood.,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“He (the President) just said, ‘I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NOTHING! I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO! TELL PRESIDENT ZELENSKY TO DO THE RIGHT THING!’ Later, Ambassador Sondland said that I told him, ‘Good, go tell the truth!’ This Witch Hunt must end NOW. So bad for our Country!” the president added.

Trump, who did not take questions from the press and reportedly was running an hour late for a planned flight to Texas, said Sondland was not someone he knows well.

Sondland, who said in an earlier deposition he did not believe there was a quid pro quo, flipped during the impeachment hearings, saying he now believes the president did tie nearly $400 million in aid to the Eastern European nation to a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“I have not spoken to him much,” Trump said of Sondland. “This is not a man I know well. Seems like a nice guy, though, but I don’t know him well.”