National Review writer Victor Davis Hanson made an appearance on this Friday's The Story with Martha MacCallum on Fox News, and his defense of Trump was so ridiculous that even guest host Ed Henry (who usually goes out of his way to carry water for Trump) corrected him on the fact that the aid to Ukraine was indeed delayed. Of course Henry failed to tell his audience that the aid was only released after the administration learned about the whistle-blower.
After Henry pointed out that the aid was indeed delayed, Hanson just turned on a dime and told Henry that Trump had every right to delay the aid, which he doesn't. Henry couldn't be bothered to fact-check Hanson on that lie either.
Here's more on the exchange from Mediaite: Victor Davis Hanson Accuses Dems of Trying to Impeach Trump for ‘Thought Crimes,’ Because Ukraine Aid Was Delayed But Not Canceled
National Review columnist Victor David Hanson accused House Democrats of trying to impeach President Donald Trump for “thought crimes” because military aid to Ukraine was delayed by the White Hose — for nearly two months — but was not ultimately canceled.
Speaking with Fox News’ Ed Henry, Hanson reprised his argument from his most recent column, where he argued that the president’s opponents are basing their case against him on things he might have talked about but never actually did.
“It’s not against the law, at least it wasn’t under the U.S. Constitution, to think something,” Hanson told Henry. “If I want to think about speeding at 80 miles per hour and I talk about thinking about it but I actually don’t, I’m not guilty of anything other than harboring a bad thoughts.”
He went to analogize Trump’s conduct with Ukraine to that example.
“Trump may or may not, we don’t really know, the evidence suggests he didn’t, think about delaying aid and that aid was delayed. But it wasn’t cut off. Maybe he thought about cutting it off,” Hanson said. “That’s not a crime. There was a context about it and he didn’t force the firing of anybody in Ukraine, and he didn’t interfere in the sense that the Ukrainians stared an investigation at his prompt.”
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“It wasn’t just a thought,” Henry pressed. “It may have only been days are a couple of weeks, but the aid was held up.”
“It’s not against the law to hold up aid,” Hanson replied, without acknowledging that he was no longer talking about what Trump thought, but actually did. “Every president, every administration has the right to examine, cross-examine, think, double-think about the aid for a couple of reasons. Maybe they thought it was corrupt. People have suggested that Ukraine couldn’t be trusted until they had verification the new president was reliable. Maybe they thought Donald Trump was too sensitive about giving aid to anybody. All of these are legitimate reasons to delay or to interrupt aid, but the bottom line is he didin’t cut it in the end.”
