Editor’s note: The following is an Opinion piece. The views are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Good Men Project.
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Sometimes situations aren’t a big deal. Sometimes they are exactly as they seem. On Saturday, President Trump underwent a two-hour exam at Walter Reed National Medical Center. The appointment wasn’t on his public schedule, which may not seem odd, but the last time the president had a physical exam was last February, and that instance had been on his schedule beforehand.
The White House Press Secretary put out a statement that said the president was in good health and simply wanted to get a jump on his upcoming annual physical.
“The president remains healthy and energetic without complaints, as demonstrated by his repeated vigorous rally performances in front of thousands of Americans several times a week,” Ms. Grisham said.
While there, the president also took time to praise the medical staff and visit with some of the patients.
Visited a great family of a young man under major surgery at the amazing Walter Reed Medical Center. Those are truly some of the best doctors anywhere in the world. Also began phase one of my yearly physical. Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019
Again, it all seems very benign, but how do we know?
This administration has repeatedly kept the American people in the dark. A perfect example of this is that there hasn’t been a daily white house press briefing since March 11th. Not one to keep with traditions, President Trump has fought transparency at every turn. Recently he even pleaded to the Supreme Court of the United States to disallow the release of his tax returns.
Additionally, throughout the impeachment inquiry regarding the possibility of quid pro quo (bribery) during a July 25th, 2019 phone call with the Ukranian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump has attempted to intimidate both the whistleblower and Congressionally subpoenaed witnesses in order to block or undermine their testimony and character.
Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019
Another prime talking point for this administration and Republican members of Congress is to claim that nothing was wrong with the president’s phone call with Ukraine. As evidence of this, they refer to a “transcript” declassified by President Trump.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
While it is debatable whether this transcript exonerates or implicates the president, one thing is not debatable, and that’s what this document is not. It is not a verbatim transcript. Read the bottom of page one.
There’s another interesting aspect to this memorandum. But before getting into that, there has to be an understanding of a certain type of punctuation. The Ellipsis.
The Ellipsis is the omission of a word or words in short. It is also a punctuation mark used multiple times throughout the July 25th Memorandum of Telephone Conversation between President Trump and Zelensky.
Context is an important aspect of understanding any type of language, and this instance is no different. When Ellipses appear in the sentence directly following one asking for a favor, omission becomes concerning.
It is because of these instances and many others not enumerated in this article, that it appears Donald Trump cannot be taken at his word. So maybe his unannounced trip to Walter Reed was routine, but I repeat, how can we know?
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