Trump Blames Rick Perry for ‘Perfect’ Ukraine Call

It now appears as though the “perfect” call President Donald Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs a fall guy, and outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry may just be that man.

According to a report on Saturday, a source told Axios that the president told House Republicans during a conference call on Friday: “Not a lot of people know this but, I didn’t even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquified natural gas] plant.” Axios also reported that the president’s quote was confirmed by two other sources.

Earlier this week, Politico reported that Perry is expected to announce his resignation from the administration by the end of November.

Trump has been trying to sell that the call was not intended to put any pressure on Zelensky to investigate the president’s political foes, but was instead “perfect.” The news of the call along with the withholding of congressional approved funds by Trump moved Speaker Nancy Pelosi to accelerate the already-in-motion impeachment inquiry, and it now appears now that Trump might be looking for an out or a scapegoat.

Axios went on to report that this might not be the end of Trump’s blame Perry strategy, with one source telling them, “more of this will be coming out in the next few days.”

Congressional Democrats are already interested in a trip Perry made to the Ukraine in May when he attended Zelensky’s inauguration in place of Vice President Mike Pence. Further, according to Axios, the House’s subpoena of Rudy Giuliani includes documents related to Perry and Ukrainian leaders.