MSNBC’s Ari Melber was left shocked when Gordon Sondland, a star witness during former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, said he planned to vote for the Republican nominee.
Sondland served as Trump’s ambassador to the European Union and testified against him in 2019 when he was accused of holding up Ukraine funding in an effort to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden.
During a segment Wednesday night, Melber pointed to Sondland’s rejection of Trump in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol attack and asked him if he still felt that way.
‘No, I don’t stand by it and I’ll tell you why,’ he said during a panel discussion alongside other ex-Trump officials including Peter Navarro and Sarah Matthews.
‘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 argued.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber (left) was left shocked when Gordon Sondland (center right), a star witness during former President Donald Trump ‘s first impeachment, said he planned to vote for the Republican nominee
A miffed Melber interrupted the ex-ambassador.
‘I’m going to let you finish, but this is so striking. You said it was a “no for me” after that, after January 6. And here we are right now and you’re saying it’s a yes for you?’ Melber asked.
Sondland answered in the affirmative.
‘It’s a yes, for me. It is an absolute yes for me,’ he said. ‘That is how badly the Biden-Harris team have prosecuted their job.’
Melber continued to press noting that ‘the whole point you seem to be making was that January 6th and that kind of attack on democracy is bigger than any policy.’
‘I am seeing so many attacks on democracy that eclipse Jan. 6th,’ Sondland replied.
Before he was able to dig into specifics, Melber asked Matthews her thoughts.
Sondland served as Trump’s ambassador to the European Union and testified against him in 2019 when he was accused of holding up Ukraine funding in an effort to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden
Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary, is supporting Harris.
She argued that she wasn’t voting on policy positions this year because she viewed Trump as such a threat.
Sondland disagreed.
‘Policy matters greatly,’ he said. ‘Because policy translates into our way of life and the way our country operates.’
‘What I want to say is, what Donald Trump did on January 6 was not an exemplary thing and I already said he lost the election, he should have admitted he lost the election and moved on,’ Sondland said.
The former ambassador then argued that after living under the Biden-Harris administration for four years, Trump doesn’t look so bad.
‘I live in a bucolic city of Portland, Oregon, which has been destroyed by those policies. Absolutely decimated. Businesses are suffering. My own business is suffering solely for political reasons, and it’s all fixable and they don’t want to fix it,’ Sondland complained.
