"Special Report" anchor Bret Baier said Wednesday morning that House Democrats will argue that an "implied " quid pro quo is evident in the transcript of President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Reacting on "America's Newsroom" to the release of the transcript of the call, which is based on "notes and recollections" of those who heard the conversation, Baier said Trump's request for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden appears to have been made right after Zelensky mentioned the planned purchase of Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States.
“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," Trump said, according to the transcript.
Baier noted that House Democrats have not moved forward to a vote on impeachment, but many on the left will likely argue that a quid pro quo is "implied" by the president in the conversation.
"They will say that that conversation that preceded it is implied. Is that going to be the moment that gets a vote on an impeachment article? Obviously Nancy Pelosi doesn't think so yet. She hasn't moved to vote to authorize an inquiry," he said.
In the days before the call, Trump reportedly ordered his staff to freeze nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine, a detail that fueled impeachment calls leading to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday. Democrats have argued Trump may have been using the military aid as leverage to push Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings, though the White House has denied that.
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“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great,” Trump said in the phone call. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it…It sounds horrible to me.”
The document does not show Trump explicitly leveraging military aid as part of a quid pro quo. The memo begins with the president congratulating Zelensky on his election victory, before Trump eventually broaches the subject of the Bidens, telling Zelensky he wanted his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney General William Barr to get involved.
Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to this report.
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