White House inadvertently sends Ukraine talking points to Democrats

The White House on Wednesday inadvertently sent out its GOP talking points on President Trump’s Ukrainian phone call to House Democrats.

Aaron Fritschner, the communications director for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), said that “numerous Dem colleagues” received the email at 11:22 a.m., followed by a White House request to recall the email at 12:02 p.m. Fritschner said Beyer’s office doesn’t do email recalls.

The administration’s snafu on the talking points for Republicans, which were quickly shared online, was also confirmed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office.

{mosads}The talking points followed the White House’s release of a partial transcript of a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump called for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his leading 2020 Democratic rivals. The call came days after Trump delayed the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in Ukrainian aid.

The White House email includes headings such as “What You Need To Know” and says the memo clearly shows “there was no quid pro quo or anything else inappropriate about the conversation.” 

The talking points said the president’s actions during the call were “entirely proper” and the press has “given currency to flat-out falsehoods about the call.”

“That is not seeking foreign ‘interference’ in a U.S. election, it is suggesting that allegations of an abuse of office merit looking into,” the email said.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Fritschner replied to the administration’s email, asking, “Did you ever think you would grow up to be someone who got paid to tell people that obvious corruption was okay?” which he posted on Twitter.

omg pic.twitter.com/ZXiyrWO9i8

— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) September 25, 2019

“My immediate reaction to the talking points was that the notion that the President didn’t suggest a quid pro quo is insulting to our intelligence and that the suggestion that he did nothing wrong is an affront to the Constitution,” he said in an email to The Hill. “The mistake with sending us talking points is far less significant, though it reveals a level of incompetence that is shocking to me even as someone who has been on the Hill since Trump took office.”

Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump on Tuesday following pressure from Democrats after reports of the Ukrainian call surfaced.