Pres. Donald Trump claims he doesn’t even know Lev Parnas. However, on Saturday, The Daily Beast obtained and published the recording of one of their meetings. The Daily Beast recording corroborates reporting that ABC News obtained part of the recording of the meeting.
The meeting lasted for nearly an hour and a half and Trump specifically said that Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch had to be fired.
“Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it,” Trump is heard saying about Yovanovitch.
Yovanovitch had been targeted by a smear campaign to force her out of Ukraine.
The recording also seems to show Parnas trying to get Trump to speak out against Yovanovitch, describing her as “a leftover from the [Bill] Clinton administration.”
“She’s basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he’s gonna get impeached, just wait,’” Parnas tells Trump.
This looks like a deliberate attempt on the part of Parnas to goad Trump, who is known to be particularly sensitive about the Clintons.
Here’s a photo of Trump and Parnas, who he has never met (ha).
(LEV PARNAS PICTURE PARTY THREAD) Ain't no party like a Lev Parnas picture party! Use this thread to post all your pictures of Lev Parnas—who the GOP is terrified of having testify in Trump's Senate trial—with GOP figures from Trump to Trump Jr., Jared Kushner to GOP leadership. pic.twitter.com/zzUcWE4GUr
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 19, 2020
Here’s another photo of Trump and Parnas, who Trump has never met. (ha again)
Oy, that wasn’t Lev Parnas at Eric Trump’s 6th birthday! Sorry I Tweeted that out — have deleted both posts and it’s on me to vet things better. My bad. Anyhoo, here’s Donny and Lev hanging out in 2014. pic.twitter.com/94fNGtDbku
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 20, 2020
In the same recording, you can hear Trump boasting about his poll numbers, claiming that they’re higher than ever.
“[…] the highest level they’ve ever been … quite a bit higher than Election Day, that was an amazing day,” prompting applause from the people in the meeting.
Reports suggest that Parnas has turned over the recording to Democrats in Congress as part of the evidence in the Trump impeachment that’s ongoing.
It was clever of Parnas to record this meeting. Everyone knows that Trump will eventually throw them under the bus.
