Russia and Putin · 2016 campaign · № 11
Campaign aides softened the GOP platform's call for 'lethal defensive weapons' for Ukraine; Trump: 'I was not involved'
“They softened it, I heard, but I was not involved.”
- Said
- , Republican National Convention platform committee, Cleveland (quote from ABC's This Week, July 31, 2016)
- Subject
- GOP platform on Ukraine
- Type
- Ukraine
- Topic
- Ukraine & Russia
- Era
- 2016 campaign
What happened
On July 11, 2016, delegate Diana Denman proposed a platform amendment describing Russia's 'ongoing military aggression' in Ukraine and supporting 'providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine's armed forces'. According to the special counsel's report, campaign adviser J.D. Gordon and another campaign staffer asked a subcommittee co-chair to table it, and it was adopted with the weapons language replaced by 'appropriate assistance'. Gordon told investigators he objected because of Trump's stated positions that Europeans should take primary responsibility for Ukraine and that he did not want to 'start World War III over that region'; Denman said Gordon told her he was 'talking to New York', which Gordon disputed. The report stated that the investigation 'did not establish that one Campaign official's efforts to dilute a portion of the Republican Party platform on providing assistance to Ukraine were undertaken at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia', and Trump's written answers said he did not recall being involved. In December 2017 the Trump administration approved the sale of 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 35 launchers to Ukraine.
Sources
- Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, Volume I of II
- Interview: Donald Trump Is Interviewed on ABC News' This Week - July 31, 2016
- Mueller asked Trump about 2016 RNC platform change regarding Ukraine: Sources
- 2016 RNC Delegate: Trump Directed Change To Party Platform On Ukraine Support
- How Sending Arms to Ukraine Went From Niche Concern to Major Scandal