In the latest confirmation that we live in the strangest, most confusing time, today’s damning testimony in the impeachment hearings against President Trump hinge, at least in part, on A$AP Rocky.
Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, testified in front of the House committee on impeachment that there was, in fact, a quid pro quo when Trump withheld aid to Ukraine until Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to open investigations into the Bidens. But Sondland had previously said otherwise, and today claimed that recent accounts of his calls with Trump jogged his memory. In one of those phone calls, he said, “We primarily discussed A$AP Rocky.â€
Details of this call were reported last week by the New York Times, but today in the impeachment hearings, the world was treated to the spectacle of a U.S. ambassador saying “A$AP Rocky†out loud. At the time of the call, Sondland and Trump were likely discussing the rapper’s imprisonment in Sweden; per the Times, an embassy official testified that Sondland advised Trump to “let him get sentenced, play the racism card, give him a ticker-tape when he comes home.†After Rocky was arrested, Trump spoke out in favor of his release. When he was released, Rocky then ghosted Trump rather than go to the White House.
Now, A$AP Rocky’s arrest has proven to be a key memory for Sondland, who testified that he’s not a notetaker or a memo writer. Instead, his memory of this potentially impeachable offense was “triggered†by the Rocky-related conversation he had with Trump. Can’t wait for next week, when maybe we’ll learn a National Security Council staffer had long talks with Trump about Lori Loughlin’s odds of doing jail time.