Trump publicly asks China to probe Joe Biden amid impeachment inquiry – World

US President Donald Trump on Thursday invited foreign interference again in a US presidential election by publicly asking China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, the type of request that has already prompted a trial investigation politician in Congress.

The Republican president said he believed that both China and Ukraine should look at the 2020 presidential candidate Biden and his entrepreneur son Hunter, and described the political trial investigation as "garbage."

Trump told reporters at the White House: “And by the way, China should also begin an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is almost as bad as what happened with Ukraine. "

Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have not offered proof of their claims of corruption with respect to former Vice President Biden, one of the main contenders for the nomination of the Democratic Party against Trump.

When asked if he had asked the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to investigate, Trump said: "I have not done it, but it is certainly something we can begin to think about."

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump's call to China was particularly surprising, as Washington and Beijing are caught in a bitter trade war that has damaged global economic growth. They are scheduled to hold another round of talks in the United States next week.

China's comments hardened the resolution of the Democrats in the House of Representatives to move forward with an investigation into whether Trump should be dismissed following the revelations of an anonymous whistleblower who said Trump asked Ukraine in July to investigate the Bidens .

Hunter Biden was on the advice of a Ukrainian gas company at a time when the United States and Europe were trying to move Ukraine away from neighboring Russia.

Some Republicans have criticized Biden for taking his son on the vice-presidential plane of Air Force Two in 2013 to China, where Hunter had commercial interests.

At a health care event in Florida, Trump said the Democrats initiated the political trial investigation because they couldn't beat him at the polls in 2020.

"That's why they make the accusation garbage: they know they can't win," Trump said.

While the election is still a long way off, Reuters / Ipsos polls show Trump is following the top Democratic candidates, including Biden, in hypothetical clashes.

Indictment probe

The political trial investigation could lead to the approval of political trial articles (or formal charges) against Trump in the House controlled by the Democrats.

A trial would then take place on whether to remove him from office in the Senate controlled by Republicans. However, many Republicans have shown little appetite for expelling him.

The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, wrote to the Democratic president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on Thursday in search of a suspension of all efforts around the investigation of political trial until "are established the usual rules and procedures. "

He asked if he planned to hold a full House vote authorizing the investigation, and if the president's lawyer could attend all the hearings and statements.

Refusing to do these things would contradict previous political trial procedures, McCarthy said.

The White House plans to send a letter to Pelosi, possibly on Friday, in which it will argue that Trump and his team can ignore the demands of lawmakers until she formally holds a political trial investigation, a source familiar with the plan said.

Axios He was the first to report the plan.

Pelosi announced the political trial investigation last week, after the complainant filed a complaint about Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens investigation.

Trump froze $ 400 million in US aid to Ukraine shortly before speaking with Zelenskiy, which prompted accusations by Democrats that he had misused US foreign policy for personal gain.

Thursday Wall Street Journal Trump said he ordered the removal in May of the then ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, after months of complaints from allies that he was undermining him abroad and obstructing efforts to persuade Kiev to investigate the Bidens.

When asked if he influenced the dismissal of the ambassador, Giuliani said: "I have just given my information" to the State Department.

A former US diplomat who served as Trump's special envoy for Ukraine spoke with members and staff of the congressional committee as part of the political trial investigation led by the Democrats.

Kurt Volker resigned as a special representative for the Ukrainian negotiations on Friday, a day after the public launch of the whistleblower complaint that described him as trying to "contain the damage" of Giuliani's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Democrats .

A person familiar with the briefing said that Volker and Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador. UU. In the European Union, they had drafted a statement for Zelenskiy that would have committed Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and unsubstantiated allegations that Ukraine, not Russia, had meddled in the US. UU. 2016 presidential election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

The wording of the statement was first reported by the New York Times.

Giuliani said Reuters On Thursday, Volker never expressed any concern about his efforts and put him in touch with Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's advisor.

"There are texts in which he asked me to inform him about Yermak," Giuliani said. “There are texts that show that I did it. There is never a text message anywhere that says you are worried about something. And he never told me that. "

The investigation in Ukraine angered Trump, whose volatile presidency survived a two-year federal investigation that discovered that Russia had intervened to help him win the White House in 2016.

In an apparent warning to Trump, Ellen Weintraub, director of the Federal Electoral Monitoring Commission, retweeted on Thursday a publication he first sent in June about receiving foreign aid in the elections.

“Let me make something 100{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} clear to the American public and anyone who is running for public office: it is illegal for anyone to request, accept or receive anything of value from a foreign citizen in relation to an election in the United States. This is not a novel concept, ”said its publication.

Vice President Mike Pence supported an investigation into Biden's dealings with Ukraine.

"My predecessor had a son who was paid $ 50,000 a month to be part of a Ukrainian board at the time when Vice President Biden led the Obama administration's efforts in Ukraine, I think it is worth investigating," he said. I hit journalists in Arizona. the president has made it very clear that he believes […] other nations around the world should also study it. ”

Biden campaign deputy director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement that Trump's comments on Thursday showed he was "desperately grasping conspiracy theories that have been discredited."

The chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Democrat Adam Schiff, accused Trump of "a fundamental violation of the oath of the office of a president" due to his comment on China.