President Trump had just yelled to reporters on the South Lawn, “I want nothing. I want nothing.” He had read from notes written in Sharpie in a small notebook, selectively quoting his own comments in a call with his ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who had described the conversation in otherwise damning testimony to the House Intelligence Committee.
The clip played on a loop for the rest of the afternoon on cable news channels. It provided cause for celebration for the group of Trump staffers, who are part of a rapid-response operation set up just weeks ago to bend opinion against the effort to impeach the president.