RUSH: Here is audio. I told you about this. This is when the Republican counsel — the lawyer, Steve Castor — is questioning the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. This is when he asked her about the Javelins and how important the Javelins are — they are a defense weapon. How important they are to Ukraine. Here’s how that sounded…
CASTOR: The provision of Javelins to Ukraine was blocked during the previous administration. Is that correct?
YOVANOVITCH: I think they made a determination. Ummmm… I was not a part of those discussions. But, uh, uh, obviously, they had not yet made a determination about whether to provide Javelins.
CASTOR: But do you have any understanding —
YOVANOVITCH: (clearing throat)
CASTOR: — of what the interagency consensus was with regards to Javelins, during the previous administration?
YOVANOVITCH: I think that, ummm, most in the interagency wanted to provide Javelins to Ukraine.
CASTOR: And so, in the new administration under President Trump, the ability to afford Ukraine this weaponry is a significant advantage, significant step forward?
YOVANOVITCH: We thought it was important.
RUSH: Let me summarize this for you. Obama didn’t do anything for Ukraine and Trump did! By the way, George Kent and Bill Taylor on Wednesday — all three of these witnesses — have had to admit that Trump’s foreign policy has been good for Ukraine. That’s what makes all this so cockamamie. Now, what was not at the beginning of this sound bite was he set her up by asking her how important Javelins were to Ukraine.
(impression) “Oh, they are very important — very important for the security of Ukraine!”
And then he said, “The provision of Javelins was blocked during the previous administration, is that correct?”
“Well… (sputtering) Well, yeah. Uhhh. They made a determination. I wasn’t part of the discussion. I… I… Uhhhh… (sputtering) I don’t know anything about anything here. I wasn’t a part of the discussion, but, obviously, they had not made a determination.”
“Answer the question: Yeah, the Obama administration didn’t provide anything after having asked Ukraine to disarm.”
Just to repeat that, the Obama administration had a pact with Ukraine. They would disarm in exchange for us promising to defend them if they were attacked — and guess what? They were. Russia came in… We talked about it on this program when it happened. It took about a week. Russia came in and annexed Crimea. They took a third of Ukraine away from them, Russia did, and Ukraine had no way to defend it or stop it because they had no weapons. They had no Javelins. They had nothing.
The Obama administration did not offer any assistance whatsoever, even though Ukraine had been promised such assistance. Trump is elected president. Guess what? The assistance was given. Ukraine was given defensive foreign aid. And Schiff and his clowns here are trying to say that Trump threatened to withhold it unless they investigated Biden! Well, they got the aid, they got the Javelins, and Trump still hasn’t gotten his investigation of Biden. There’s nothing here, folks. If anything happens of note, Jim Jordan is now questioning Yovanovitch, and I’m sure that will be interesting.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, Obama refused to give Ukraine Javelins because Obama was afraid it would make Putin mad. I’m not kidding. It’s supposedly Trump that’s in collusion with Putin and all that. It was Obama. He didn’t want to make Putin mad. That’s why Ukraine did not get the Javelins. It’s why Yovanovitch said, “They haven’t come to the (mumbling).” Actually, Ukraine was better off after Trump was elected. Javelins, folks, are the only thing that has slowed down the Russians because they are tank killers.
Essentially, if you hear the word Javelin being tossed around, “What the hell is a Javelin?” It’s a tank killer. The Russians don’t care about how much money and all that they lose, but they care about the tanks. Tanks are expensive. People are a dime a dozen. Soviets, communists, whatever, Russians. And Obama didn’t want to tick off Putin. Remember the open mic talking to Dmitry Medvedev? “Tell Vlad I’ll have much more flexibility after I win reelection in 2012.” It was Obama that was in tight with Putin, or afraid of him, one of the two.