GOP congressman claims Trump's call with Zelensky is just 'routine diplomacy'

(Image credit: Timothy D. Easley/ Associated Press)

last updated 27 September 2019

Stay calm. There's nothing to see here.

That's the message Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) is sending after the White House released a memorandum of a call in which President Trump urged Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. "What the call is is routine diplomacy," Barr told NPR in an interview aired Friday morning, also attacking a whistleblower complaint regarding the call as "hearsay" and "not as relevant" as the phone call memorandum he's defending.

Pretty much every Democrat, and even a handful of Republicans, have indicated that what transpired on the Trump-Zelensky call isn't exactly normal. That leaves Barr very much in the minority.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.