Mulvaney admission deals blow to White House impeachment defense

The White House defense against Democrats’ impeachment inquiry suffered a major blow Thursday with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s admission that aid for Ukraine was linked to President Trump’s desire for the country to pursue a political probe related to the 2016 election.

The stunning admission marked the first time a White House official had publicly undermined Trump's repeated denials of any quid pro quo. It also coincided with a host of current and former administration officials raising concerns during closed-door testimony about the administration’s Ukraine policy.

Mulvaney indicated he felt the behavior was nothing out of the ordinary, telling reporters to “get over it.”

“There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy,” Mulvaney said during a rare press conference in the White House briefing room. “That’s going to happen.”

His comments threaten to erode the administration's narrative that there was no quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine and may bolster the Democrats' impeachment probe.

Mulvaney walked back his remarks hours later as unease built over his press briefing, where he indicated that the administration had held up almost $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine in part because Trump wanted Kiev to investigate an unsubstantiated allegation about Ukraine’s involvement in the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server in 2016. The theory undercuts Russian involvement in the hack and the U.S. intelligence community assessment about election interference by Moscow.

Mulvaney blamed the media for misconstruing his comments and advancing “a biased and political witch hunt against President Trump.”