Trump publicly urges Ukraine, China to investigate Bidens
President Trump on Thursday openly called on Ukraine and China to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“Well, I would think that if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do when he sought the probe in July.
Trump then continued: “And, by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
In 2013, Hunter Biden accompanied his father, who was then vice president, on a state visit to China. At the same time, Hunter was helping launch an equity fund that was seeking Chinese investors.
Asked if he had requested Chinese President Xi Jinping to help probe the Bidens, Trump replied: “I haven’t but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”
Trump later alleged that China scored a “sweetheart deal” on trade with the US because of the Bidens.
“You know what they call that,” Trump said. “They call that a payoff.”
During the same back and forth with reporters, Trump also said that a delegation from China would come to the US next week for renewed trade talks.
The president also repeated his criticism of the explosive whistleblower complaint that pushed House Democrats to launch their impeachment inquiry, saying it was “total fiction” and again claiming his July conversation with Zelensky was “absolutely perfect.”
Trump claims the former vice president wanted former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin out because he was investigating Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian company that gave Hunter a seat on its board, paying him up to $50,000 a month.
“That was a crooked deal — 100 percent. He had no knowledge of energy. Didn’t know the first thing about it. All of a sudden he’s getting $50,000 a month plus a lot of other things. Nobody has any doubt. They got rid of a prosecutor, who was a really tough prosecutor. But they got rid of him,” Trump said Thursday.
Trump made his comments a day after he used profanity to lash out at Democrats investigating his call with the leader of Ukraine as part of an impeachment inquiry in the House, focusing his ire on Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Schiff’s committee last week released a whistleblower complaint that alleged a string of interactions between Trump and close associates and Ukrainian officials, including the July 25 call where Trump pressed for the probe into the Bidens.
Trump again claimed Thursday the whistleblower’s complaint is “totally inaccurate because the conversation that I had was absolutely perfect and most people who read it said the same thing.
“The whistleblower never saw the conversation. He got his information, I guess, second- or third-hand. He wrote something that was total fiction. And now when people see that. They’re not happy,” he said.
Trump also was asked why he got rid of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was unexpectedly recalled from her post last May.
“I don’t know if I recalled her or somebody recalled her, but I heard very, very bad things about her for a very long period of time — not good,” he said.
After speaking at the White House, the president departed for Florida.