There’s a book titled A Pragmatic Analysis of Norwegian Modal Particles. That sounds pretty nerdy, academic, and something only a fussy scholar would spill ink over.
And THEN! “I have a favor to ask though.” Words that may bring down a president. WTF! How could that be?
Easy. Any native speaker of English understands intuitively that that “though” says this:
“Before we can proceed, we have to get something straight.” As an adverb it is defined this way: “however (indicating that a factor qualifies or imposes restrictions on what was said previously).
Enter three more tiny words from a foreign language, two pronouns and a preposition: Quid pro quo, Latin for Something for something, IOW, a deal*. So far, it sounds like some diplomatic maneuvering. But then it turns out that the ‘quid’ is help with Trump’s election by providing the appearance of wrong-doing on the part of his opponent, the ‘quo’ being military aid already granted by Congress plus a visit to the WH. The ‘quid’ also included an “investigation” into whether maybe it was Ukraine who interfered in the 2016 election and not Russia.
If the ‘quid’ had been something beneficial to U.S. security, OK. But it was for Trump’s political benefit. Someone in the WH either did not know that that is illegal or was rebuffed when they tried to tell Trump. Either way, all of them should have taken Khizr Khan up on the offer of his copy of the Constitution.
*For you who have forgotten your Latin, the quid and the quo are the same word, quo being the form taken after this preposition “pro”.