Vice President Joe Biden will make a statement to reporters in Delaware on Tuesday amid increasing scrutiny of a call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine, in which Mr. Trump discussed Biden and his son Hunter. The July call is the subject of a from a member of the intelligence community that was supposed to be turned over to the House Intelligence Committee but has been withheld by the acting director of national intelligence, fueling growing calls for impeachment from Democrats.
Biden is expected to address the whistleblower claims and what his campaign refers to as “President Trump’s ongoing abuse of power.” The campaign said Biden will call on the president to “comply with all of Congress’ outstanding, lawful requests for information,” and if he doesn’t, “Congress has no choice but to impeach.” The statement is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET.
That position is in line with what the former vice president said on Saturday in Iowa, when he stated the president “could be impeached” depending on the findings of congressional investigations.
“I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president,” Biden said in Iowa. “Depending on what the House finds [Trump] could be impeached. But I’m not making that judgment now. The House should investigate.”
Biden has defended his son and himself and said Saturday the president is attacking him because “he knows I’ll beat him like a drum.”
“He’s using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me,” Biden said, calling on the president to release the transcript of the call.
When asked on Tuesday about his decision to hold back aid to Ukraine shortly before his call with the Ukrainian president, Mr. Trump said it was because he “wanted other countries to put up money.”
“We paid the money,” he said, arguing that other European countries should help Ukraine with its defenses. “That’s been my complaint from the very beginning,” Mr. Trump added.
He again described his call with Zelensky as “perfect” and maintained that he had applied no pressure on him to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
“But there was pressure put on with respect for [Joe] Biden’s son,” he argued. “That’s something they should be looking at,” he said.
