Rand Paul Calls Out Double Standard: Dem Senators Who Threatened Ukraine During Mueller Probe Should be Investigated

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called out the Democratic hypocrisy over President Donald Trump’s Ukraine phone call on “Fox and Friends” on Monday and on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Paul pointed out that Democrats had threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine in the past yet they didn’t seem to be bothered by their own actions. He said that if you were going to apply the same rules, Democrats should be investigated as well.

“Democrats get to threaten Ukrainian aid and nothing happens to them. Now they want to impeach a president over this?” @RandPaul points out a “double standard” when it comes to the effort to impeach @realDonaldTrump over his contact with a foreign nation pic.twitter.com/61riQG9qlc

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 14, 2019

From Fox News:

“The only thing consistent about the whole discussion of people threatening Ukrainian aid is that everybody seems to be doing it — on both sides,” he said. “Joe Biden threatened the aid and then three senators wrote a letter to the Ukrainian government, and they said if you don’t continue investigating Trump, and help the Mueller investigation, we may pull back on your aid.

“We can’t have two standards,” Paul added. “Democrats get to threaten Ukrainian aid and nothing happens to them. Now they want to impeach a president over this?”

Paul was referencing Biden’s threat in 2016 while he was Vice President to withhold aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire the prosecutor who just happened to be investigating his son Hunter’s company. Biden admitted he made the threat on video in 2018 but said the threat was because he was trying to fight corruption in Ukraine.

The other threat Paul references was a 2018 letter from three Democratic senators – Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Dick Durbin, (D-IL), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) – in which the Senators threatened to withhold aid if Ukraine didn’t help provide assistance in the Mueller investigation against Trump.

Paul mentioned the letter on “Meet the Press” on Sunday as well, according to The Hill.

The letter was sent after a New York Times report found the investigations into Manafort in Ukraine had stalled.

Paul asserts the Democratic senators threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine in the letter if the country did not cooperate in the Mueller investigation.

The Kentucky senator said the Democratic senators’ sending of the letter needs to be examined.

“That’s a threat and that’s the same kind of stuff they’re accusing Trump of,” he said.

Of course, Democrats did more than President Donald Trump ever did, explicitly conditioning action on aid, which Trump did not do. Trump never had a quid pro quo in the call at all and the Ukrainian president said he didn’t feel pressured. Kurt Volker, the former US Special Representative for Ukraine, said Ukraine wasn’t even aware of the possibility of aid being held back, so it clearly couldn’t have operated as a threat.

Yet, Democrats want Trump impeached and are quiet on their own actions.

Paul told Fox that Americans would see this for what it was – “very partisan” – and he believed if it made it to the Senate, it would be voted down.

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