Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky says he was upset at Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the Eastern European country is corrupt and even asked the United States leader to stop saying that it is.
Zelensky opened up with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour for the first one-on-one interview since Trump was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate.
Trump and Zelensky’s interactions were the focus of the impeachment trial, particularly the July 25 phone call during which Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate Burisma and the Bidens. Trump has repeatedly said that his phone call with Zelensky was without flaw, and that he wasn’t working to benefit himself, but to help eliminate corruption in the U.S. and Ukraine.
But Zelensky says that he takes issue with his country being called corrupt. As Amanpour pointed out, Trump once said that Ukraine is the third-most corrupt country on the planet.
“That’s not true. When I had a meeting with President Trump and he said that in previous years (Ukraine) was such a corrupt country, I told him very honestly and I was very open with him. I told him that we fight with corruption. We fight each day,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky says that he asked the president to stop spreading misinformation.
“Please, please stop saying that Ukraine is a corrupt country, because from now, it’s not true. We want to change this image,” he said.
Despite the difference of opinion, Zelensky says that the U.S. and Ukraine have a good relationship, and he thanked Trump for supporting his country, adding that he was ready for the next time Trump called him.
He also joked that before becoming president, he had wanted to become well-known in the United States as a producer, screenwriter, and actor.
“I wanted to get an Oscar, I wanted to be popular in the USA… Now I am very popular in the USA,” he said.
Trump’s phone call with Zelensky became the focus of the House impeachment inquiry after Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats found that the president had pushed the Ukrainian leader in order to help his own reelection bid. The charges allege that Trump attempted to withhold Congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine to force the country to announce that it was opening an investigation into Trump’s chief political rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.
Ultimately, Trump was impeached on two articles — obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. He was impeached in the House largely along party lines and acquitted in the Senate along the same lines.