This archive report was first published on 20 October 2019.
October 20, 2019, marked a day of confusion for Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, as he attempted to clarify his comments on Ukraine.
During an appearance on 'Fox News Sunday,' Mulvaney disagreed with an assertion by the show's anchor, Chris Wallace, that his remarks were proof of a quid pro quo, an exchange the president has publicly denied for weeks.
However, Mulvaney struggled to explain how his comments Sunday were not at odds with what he said last week, stating, 'That's what people are saying that I said, but I didn't say that.'
When pressed by Wallace, Mulvaney said he was 'not acknowledging there's three reasons' for withholding aid to Ukraine, despite previously outlining three reasons: corruption in the country, whether other countries were also giving aid to Ukraine, and whether Ukrainian officials were cooperating in a Justice Department investigation.
Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, declined to weigh in on Mulvaney's news conference, saying, 'I will leave to the chief of staff to explain what it is he said and what he intended.'
Despite the controversy surrounding his comments, Mulvaney doubled down on his assertion that the president had a right to demand information about the investigation into the unfounded theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was involved in hacking and releasing Democratic Party emails during the 2016 election.
