Joe Biden is sick of Donald Trump. That places Biden in the same boat as many millions of Americans, but he’s in a unique position all the same — according to reporting about a whistleblower complaint about Trump’s behavior, he tried to bribe Ukrainian authorities into trying to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of Trump potentially facing the former vice president in the 2020 general election. This weekend at a campaign stop in Iowa, Biden lashed out against Trump, asserting that the controversial figure is a “serial abuser” of power and should release the transcript of the call in question as soon as possible if there’s really nothing to see here. The normally pretty “middle of the road” Biden even pointed to possible impeachment of Trump from the House as a legitimate option.
Biden told reporters:
‘I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that’s what happened… Trump’s doing this because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum and he’s using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me… Depending on what the House finds, he could be impeached, but I’m not making that judgment now… I know what I’m up against, a serial abuser. That’s what this guy is. Abuses power anywhere he can, and if he sees any threat to his staying in power, he’ll do whatever he has to do.’
Watch some of it:
ASK. THE. RIGHT. QUESTION. pic.twitter.com/h4iGsiHVhk
— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) September 21, 2019
The conversation with the Ukrainian president that the so far not publicly named intelligence community whistleblower sounded an alarm about to the intelligence community’s inspector general figured in a larger pattern of the Trump team trying to get dirt from the Ukrainians on Biden. Trump lawyer (and former New York City mayor) Rudy Giuliani conducted an effort along those lines very publicly, even planning to go to Ukraine at one point, although he cancelled that trip — but not without also meeting with those “in the know” on his own time in the United States.
Trump and his cronies have alleged that the Bidens received inappropriate personal benefit from a push Joe made while he was vice president to have Ukrainian authorities dismiss a widely believed to be corrupt top prosecutor. That prosecutor had at one point been handling an investigation into a company Joe’s son Hunter was involved with, and so — as the Trump team’s story goes — Joe protected family finances with his eventually successful pressure campaign. There’s no evidence that the former vice president even knew his son was involved with the company in question.
Biden remains one of the leading candidates in the Democratic presidential primary alongside a small number of other high-profile ones like Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).
Often, it’s only those three who crack into the double digit levels of support in polls — and they all consistently do well when pitted against Trump in polls.
Featured Image via screenshot
