Trump Admits Talking About Biden in ‘Absolutely Perfect’ Phone Call With Ukraine President
President Donald Trump admitted he spoke about former vice president Joe Biden during a phone call with Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Sunday morning, Trump took questions from the media on the White House lawn and said, “The conversation I had [with President Zelensky] 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.”
He went on to characterize the call as “absolutely perfect.”
Trump, looking very red, basically admits he asked Ukrainian President Zelensky to look into Biden during call that's part of whistleblower complaint: "It was largely [about] fact that we don't want our people like VP Biden & his son creating to the corruption largely in Ukraine" pic.twitter.com/2hvkTbHSJl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2019
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, Trump repeated his request for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens eight times during a call on July 25, 2019.
Trump also accused Biden of lying about the matter, saying the former vice president “made the mistake of saying he never spoke to his son,” adding, “He did speak to his son, he lied again. I’m not looking to hurt Biden, but he did a very dishonest thing.”
The president also complained about the White House practice of recording a president’s phone calls with foreign leaders.
Trump says whistleblower who raised concerns about his dealings with Ukraine is "not a whistleblower," then adds: "The conversation was absolutely prefect. It was a beautiful, warm, nice conversation."
He goes on to argue that his calls with foreign leaders shouldn't be recorded pic.twitter.com/q4r7zzyEKG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2019
Trump denied offering a “quid pro quo” in exchange for information on the Bidens, but a government whistleblower complaint alleges the president had been blocking $250 million in military aid to Ukraine intended to help the country confront Russia and that he threatened not to send the aid unless Ukraine dug up dirt related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
Responding to this reporting, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, “If media reports are correct that President Trump delayed military aid appropriated by Congress in order to get Ukraine to investigate a political opponent, it’s difficult not to see that as an abuse of presidential authority, plain and simple.”
As for Biden, he called for the release of the call transcript and speculated to reporters on Saturday that the only reason Trump is looking to find dirt is because “he knows I’ll beat him like a drum.”