President Trump told reporters outside the White House on Wednesday that he "doesn't know" EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland "very well."
Why it matters: It's the latest walk-back from the president about his relationship with Sondland, who donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
- Trump tweeted last month that Sondland was "a really good man and great American" who he would love to see testify before the impeachment inquiry.
- Trump then said earlier this month — after Sondland revised his closed-door impeachment testimony to be more damaging to the president — that he "hardly [knows]" Sondland but added that "this is the man who said there was no quid pro quo."
- Today, as Sondland testified before the House Intelligence Committee, Trump said, "I have not spoken to him much. This is not a man I know well. He seems like a nice guy though."
Worth noting: Sondland refused to testify whether he believed Trump's assertion in a Sept. 9 phone call that there was no quid pro quo involving the military aid. While he texted Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, to that end after the call, he testified: "I was just trying to convey what [the president] said on the phone."
- Sondland also said that he worked with Rudy Giuliani "at the express direction" of Trump on matters involving Ukraine.
The big picture: Trump has said on multiple occasions that he doesn't know a number senior officials caught up in the impeachment inquiry as a defense.
