Trump: Biden discussed in Ukraine call – By Tom Howell Jr. (The Washington Times) / Sept 22 2019
President Trump on Sunday appeared to confirm reports he spoke about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden during a July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But he insisted he did nothing wrong, calling the conversation “absolutely perfect” and that he delayed aid to the Eastern European nation because other countries weren’t offering a fair share.
“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place and largely the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine and Ukraine has got a lot of problems,” Mr. Trump told White House reporters as he left for a rally in Texas.
“The new president is saying that he’s going to be able to rid the country of corruption, and I said that would be a great thing, we had a great conversation,” he said.
Mr. Trump urged Mr. Zelensky “about eight times” to cooperate with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on investigating Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, over a possible nexus between the son’s business interests and the vice president’s push in 2016 to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor, Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The conversation is at the heart of a whistleblower complaint the Trump administration is keeping out of the hands of Congress.
Democrats say Mr. Trump should be transparent and hand over details of the call, if he did nothing wrong.
More ominously, they fear Mr. Trump held up $250 million in Ukrainian aid — it was released Sept. 12 — as part of an attempt to extract dirt on the Democratic presidential frontrunner, Mr. Biden, who leads Mr. Trump in many 2020 polls.
Mr. Trump said he would have “no problem” with Mr. Giuliani testifying to Congress about his recent meetings with Ukrainians.
“Rudy is a very straight shooter and Rudy wants to see the same thing as a lot of other people with respect to Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said.
He also questioned the whistleblower’s motives, saying president’s should be free to speak to foreign leaders and “you can’t have people doing this.”
The inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community who received the complaint deemed it a credible and urgent matter, yet the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire won’t turn over the complaint to lawmakers.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and other Democrats say if Mr. Trump used the presidency to try and damage a political opponent, it will have serious ramifications that may include impeachment.
A Senate Republican, Sen. Pat Toomey, was more circumspect but did suggest it would be wrong of a president to seek a political leg up from a foreign nation.
“Look, it is not appropriate for any candidate for federal office, certainly, including a sitting president, to ask for assistance from a foreign country,” Mr. Toomey, of Pennsylvania, told NBC’s Meet the Press. “That’s not appropriate. But I don’t know that that’s what happened here.”
Mr. Trump eventually released about $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, plus $140 million more.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was in conversations about Ukrainian aid and no one tied it to the Bidens.
“There was no connection,” Mr. Mnuchin told NBC’s Meet the Press. “That issue never came up.”
Mr. Mnuchin said the president shouldn’t be forced to turn over details of the call to Congress.
“These are confidential discussions between world leaders,” he said.
Mr. Trump said the pressure should be on the former vice president to explain himself, pointing to Mr. Biden’s claim he never spoke about business with his son despite evidence to the contrary.
“This is a very dishonest thing that Joe Biden did, and then he said he never spoke to his son. Does anybody believe that one?” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with Mr. Zelensky next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, potentially raising the controversy to a new level.
Democrats say Mr. Zelensky was bewildered by Mr. Giuliani’s entreaties and the delay in aid money, though Mr. Trump said Sunday he was just worried the U.S. was shouldering too much of the burden.
“I backed Ukraine from the beginning, but I’m very upset that other countries aren’t doing the same,” Mr. Trump said. “Germany should be spending much more, France, all of the European Union should be spending money. Why are we spending money and they’re not? Or at least they’re spending very little by comparison, so I’m not happy about that.”
He also highlighted a statement from the Ukrainian foreign minister, who said their country did not feel pressured by the U.S. during the July 25 call.
“It was a beautiful, warm, nice conversation. It was put out last night also by Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said.
Democrats say they cannot rely on that statement, since Ukraine is being put in an awful diplomatic position and is beholden to the administration for aid money.
President Donald Trump talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019, as he prepares to board Marine One for the short trip to Andrews Air Force Base.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/22/donald-trump-joe-biden-discussed-ukraine-call/
