Donald Trump On Impeachment Inquiry: ‘That’s A Positive For Me In The Election’
President Donald Trump’s allegedly inappropriate contacts with Ukraine have persuaded even the staunchest of Democratic impeachment opponents — including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — to launch a formal impeachment inquiry.
Trump seems unfazed, however.
According to The Hill, while speaking to reporters during a meeting with the Iraqi president at the United Nations, the commander-in-chief argued that an impeachment inquiry could only benefit him politically, and help Republicans win in 2020.
“The country’s doing the best it’s ever done, and I just heard she’d like to impeach,” he said of Pelosi.
“If [Pelosi] does that, they all say that’s a positive for me in the election. You could also say who needs it. It’s bad for the country.”
Trump also questioned how Pelosi can move forward with an inquiry, given that the United States Congress has not had access to a transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president, during which he now claims he did not ask for an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden or his son Hunter.
“By the way, she hasn’t even seen the phone call. The phone call was perfect,” he said.
As The Hill notes, the president has sent somewhat conflicting signals about what he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky actually talked about. He has admitted talking about Biden, and acknowledged that the administration had withed military aid for Ukraine, although claiming that it had done so in order to pressure other European countries into contributing more money.
According to Trump, there is no explicit quid pro quo tying the Biden investigation with the withdrawal of military funding, but Democrats have argued that the president’s admission and apparent willingness to pressure a foreign entity into investigating a political opponent is in and of itself enough reason to begin an impeachment investigation.
.@repjohnlewis calls for impeachment proceedings: "We took an oath to protect this nation against all domestic enemies… Sometimes I'd afraid to go to sleep for fear I will wake up and our Democracy will be gone." – Watch online: https://t.co/OklmR1M8SW pic.twitter.com/HNIsZdhyQc
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 24, 2019
More than 150 Democrats in the House now support launching a formal impeachment inquiry, including more moderate lawmakers in so-called purple states.
The full transcript of the president’s conversation with Zelensky will be released on Wednesday. This was announced earlier today by Trump himself via Twitter.
“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!” he tweeted.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, following the allegations that Trump is pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, his Republican allies jumped to his defense.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham compared Biden’s alleged ties to Ukraine with Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, calling on the Justice Department to investigate the former vice president.
