The Mueller investigation is plowing ahead, and one center of focus is on the Republican National Convention platform item that was watered down to be more favorable to Russia.
Diana Denman, a female Republican delegate from San Antonio who made the clause, was puzzled. So was her colleague, gay Republican Rachel Hoff, who was also on the platform committee.
This meeting is detailed in these contemporaneous news stories:
Trump campaign guts GOP’s anti-Russia stance on Ukraine
Inside the meeting, Diana Denman, a platform committee member from Texas who was a Ted Cruz supporter, proposed a platform amendment that would call for maintaining or increasing sanctions against Russia, increasing aid for Ukraine and “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the Ukrainian military.
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“This is another example of Trump being out of step with GOP leadership and the mainstream in a way that shows he would be dangerous for America and the world,” said Rachel Hoff, another platform committee member who was in the room.
Proposed GOP Stance on Ukraine Sparks Controversy
Diana Denman, a Texas delegate who backed her state’s U.S. Senator Ted Cruz for the party’s presidential nominee, has visited Ukraine several times since its independence in 1991. An international observer in three of the country’s elections, she has been troubled by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its involvement with armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
How The Trump Campaign Weakened The Republican Platform On Aid To Ukraine
Denman is a long time GOP activist from Texas. When she presented her proposal during a platform subcommittee meeting last month, “two gentleman,” whom Denman said were part of the Trump campaign, came over, looked at the language, and asked that it be set aside for further review.
“Gentlemen”. J. D. Gordon was one of them.
The Trump campaign’s national-security policy representative for the Republican National Convention, J.D. Gordon, told CNN on Thursday that he pushed to alter an amendment to the GOP’s draft policy on Ukraine at the Republican National Convention last year to further align it with President Donald Trump’s views.