Re: So you've missed out the big detail.
I'm willing to bet he brought that up with his staff, only to be told that even the weak willed republicans in congress would have spoke out against him for directly asking for a monetary bribe.
This will come out eventually, first he'll deny it, then he'll say "I could have done that if I wanted, it would have been perfectly all right" in his usual patern of deny first, then tacitly admit it but say there's nothing wrong with it.