More Republican senators consider acknowledging Trump’s quid pro quo on Ukraine

A growing number of Republican senators in the US Congress are ready to acknowledge that President Donald Trump used American military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son, even as Trump repeatedly denies quid pro quo accusations by Democrats that triggered an impeachment inquiry against him.

The shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld US aid from Ukraine to pressure the Eastern European nation to dig up dirt on one of his main political rival, The Washington Post said in a report on Saturday.

Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

The House of Representatives passed a resolution on Thursday to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry and open the closed-door investigation to the public.

The House resolution ushered in a new phase of the investigation that poses the greatest threat to Trump’s presidency to date.

Republicans in the upper chamber of Congress are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense, even as an increasing number of these Republicans wonder how long they can continue to argue that no quid pro quo was at play in the matter, the the newspaper said.

The shift was the main topic during a private meeting on Wednesday by Senate Republicans, the report said, citing multiple people familiar with the session who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana argued that there may have been a quid pro quo but said that the US government often attaches conditions to foreign aid and that nothing was illegal in Trump’s doing so in the case of aid to Ukraine, the individuals familiar with the GOP meeting said.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who ran against Trump in 2016, echoed Kennedy’s argument that such conditions are a tool of foreign policy and a quid pro quo is not illegal unless there is “corrupt intent.”

The discussion underscores the dilemma for congressional Republicans as they frantically seek a new strategy to defend the president.

The Republican president has frustrated senators in his political party by seeming to change his messaging strategy every day rather than present a coherent defense of his actions, said multiple Senate GOP officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The White House has scheduled regular meetings during the past two weeks with Republican lawmakers to discuss the impeachment probe, as the Democratic-led House of Representatives moves forward with the open phase of its probe.

Trump went after Democrats on Friday, claiming that the House impeachment inquiry was part of a planned attempt to illegitimately remove the president from office.

“First they engineered the Russia hoax, then the Mueller witch hunt,” Trump said at reelection rally in Tupelo, Mississippi.

“I never thought I would be involved with the word 'impeachment,'” Trump said, saying he considered it “a dirty word.”