A witness in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial revealed that he supports the former president over Vice President Kamala Harris due to his dissatisfaction with the current administration.
Gordon Sondland, who served as ambassador to the European Union (EU), explained his change of heart during an interview on Friday with MSNBC’s Ari Melber.
“I’ve now lived four years under the Biden-Harris policies and I have to say that those policies are not only becoming an existential threat to our country’s way of life, but to our allies as well,” Sondland said.
Sondland was considered a key witness in the House impeachment inquiry and provided testimony against Trump in 2019.
Melber, who appeared blindsided at Sondland’s support for Trump, reminded him that he rejected the former president after Jan. 6.
“I’m going to let you finish, but this is so striking,” Melber told him. “You said it was a ‘no for me’ after that, after Jan. 6. And here we are right now, and you’re saying it’s a yes for you?”
Sondland said that he is seeing “so many more attacks on democracy than Jan. 6.”
He doubled down on his support for Trump and said that it’s “an absolute yes” for him, adding “that’s how badly the Biden-Harris administration has prosecuted their job.”
Sondland told lawmakers during the Democraat-led House impeachment inquiry that he was concerned there was a “quid pro quo” that linked military aid to an investigation into the Biden family. He claimed that Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, directed the arrangement.
“Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a ‘quid pro quo’ for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky,” Sondland told the House panel. “Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the president [Trump],” Sondland testified.
Although Sondland supports Trump once again, he believes Trump should have “admitted he lost the election” in 2020 and just “moved on” from that point.
Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former trade advisor Peter Navarro were also interviewed as part of the segment on MSNBC.
Matthews argued that Trump’s threat to democracy outweighs any policy considerations. The ex-Trump aide, who resigned after Jan. 6., said that she supports Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Sondland, however, maintained in the interview that “policy matters greatly” and said that Biden-Harris administration governance is a greater danger than Trump’s handling of Jan. 6.
Meanwhile, Navarro, who served a four-month sentence after being convicted of contempt of Congress, weighed in on a newly unsealed Department of Justice court filing that alleged Trump pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid for reelection.
The 165-page filing from special counsel Jack Smith released on Wednesday outlines election subversion allegations against Trump. It argues that the 45th president is not immune from criminal charges since his alleged conduct was for private gain rather than duty of public office.
“This is election interference,” Navarro stated.
Navarro highlighted the timing of the DOJ’s filing and noted that there’s no coincidence that there are only about 30 days left until the presidential election.