The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
⏩ Rudy Giuliani turns tables, calls for Chris Murphy’s impeachment.
At the center of a corruption scandal that has prompted calls for President Trump's impeachment, Rudy Giuliani went on Fox News Tuesday to try and turn the tables by accusing the Democratic senator who first questioned his work in trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals.
He called for Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy to be impeached because he questioned Trump’s and Giuliani's actions.
“He went to see the president of the Ukraine, and he told the president of the Ukraine that if he cooperates with president they’ll cut off aid,” Giuliani said of Murphy to Fox host Laura Ingraham. “That’s a quid pro quo. That’s threatening. Nancy Pelosi should be outraged at Chris Murphy. They should impeach him. They should impeach Chris Murphy.”
Murphy, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal and other members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation, has called for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Trump has admitted speaking with Ukraine about Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and has withheld from Congress a whistleblower complaint about that discussion. “If we allow President Trump to get away with trading our influence abroad in order to advance his political interests, our nation’s standing in the world will suffer irreparable damage and the health of our democracy at home will suffer a potentially mortal blow,” Murphy said in a statement encouraging impeachment proceedings.
Despite Giuliani’s assertion that Murphy “told the president of the Ukraine” that if the nation cooperated with Trump “they’ll cut off aid,” earlier this month Murphy said withholding aid from Ukraine was a bad decision.
Trump had previously lifted his administration’s hold on $250 million earmarked for Ukraine, which Murphy praised.
“Withholding these funds was a gift to Putin. The stronger Ukraine becomes economically and politically, the higher we raise the costs for Putin to meddle there,” Murphy said.
In May, when it emerged that Giuliani himself was traveling to Ukraine, Murphy sent a letter to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch asking for a congressional inquiry into why a private citizen was traveling to Ukraine to work with a foreign government in a Trump
“If we allow President Trump to get away with trading our influence abroad in order to advance his political interests, our nation’s standing in the world will suffer irreparable damage . ... ” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, DConn.
campaign reelection effort.
“Rudolph Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, has apparently held meetings with Ukrainian officials in the United States and plans to travel to Ukraine for further discussions,” Murphy said then. “As far as we know, none of these meetings are being coordinated with the U.S. State Department or other government agencies.”