SWING AND MISS

| 10:15 pm EST January 30, 2020
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Last week we learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was planning to travel to Ukraine during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, in an effort to meddle in the whole process. It was clear that this was a sign of pure desperation, as no one takes the risk of returning to the scene of the crime unless they think they have no choice. Now the details are surfacing about the trip, and it’s becoming clear that it’s not just desperate – it’s a desperate swing and miss.

It turns out Donald Trump is apparently having Mike Pompeo go to Ukraine – complete with the terrible optics of the trip and the risk of making them both look guilty at a time when all eyes are watching – simply to push Ukraine into announcing that it felt no pressure from Trump over the military aid he withheld.

But Ukrainian President Zelensky has been publicly saying this all along, because he can’t afford to give any other answer. Trump has been consistently touting Zelensky’s “no pressure” line in his tweets and in his impeachment trial defense. It’s gotten Trump nowhere, because everyone who cares enough to pay attention to it can intuitively figure out that Trump is forcing Zelensky to say this.

Now Donald Trump has Mike Pompeo going to Ukraine just to get Zelensky to say it again, even though that’ll gain Trump literally nothing. No wonder Pompeo is completely flipping his lid, screaming at and threatening reporters in the process. Pompeo surely knows he’s being sent on a suicide mission that’ll set him up as the next fall guy, all for Trump’s latest inept swing and miss. Trump just keeps getting worse at this.