President Donald Trump declared on Thursday that the Chinese and Ukrainian governments both should investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter.
When a reporter asked Trump what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about the Bidens during the infamous phone call in July, Trump bluntly admitted that he wanted Ukraine to investigate his political rival.
“Well I would think if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” he said. “It’s a very simple answer.”
“Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump added. “Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
Trump calls on China to investigate the Bidens pic.twitter.com/F9VwdAqjkv
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 3, 2019
It was another stunning example of the President of the United States outright calling on a foreign power to inflict political damage on his rival. Trump’s efforts to strong-arm the Ukrainian president to drum up phony allegations against Biden have formed the basis for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
Besides baseless conspiracy theories about Biden and Ukraine, Trump and his allies have also repeatedly claimed that Hunter Biden made shady deals in China.
Trump’s allegations regarding China stem from a Beijing trip the former vice president took with his son in 2013, during which Hunter met with a partner in his China-based private equity fund, according to NBC News. However, there’s no evidence Biden or his son engaged in improper or corrupt conduct.
During a Fox News interview in May, Trump demanded an investigation into Biden’s alleged ties to China. However, he didn’t push China itself to conduct the potential investigation at the time.
Watch Trump below:
Trump says he "should start thinking about" asking China to investigate the Bidens pic.twitter.com/duh63vyelK
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 3, 2019
Now about those tariffs…
What would be so difficult about picking up the phone and saying “Madame Speaker, would you please impeach me?”
I wish Richard Hofstadter were still with us to write a 2019 update on his Paranoid Style in American Politics. I bet he never dreamed it would one day completely conquer the Executive Branch…
Go ahead Donnie, they will play you like an erhu.