It’s official: Democrats in Congress are pursuing impeachment against President Donald Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went as far as to say that all Democratic leaders are on board during a statement on Tuesday.
Weirdly, Trump doesn’t seem to care too much.
On Monday, the President denied allegations that he tried to coerce the Ukrainian President into investigating his Democratic rival Joe Biden, which has set Democrats on another “witch hunt” and has them saying that it is grounds for his impeachment.
When he heard the allegations, Trump told reporters in N.Y. that he did not pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation into the corruption of Biden and his son Hunter, who was employed by a company drilling for gas in Ukraine, in return for military assistance from the U.S. Trump made this simple statement: “No I didn’t.”
The complaint against Trump came from a U.S. whistleblower who mentioned the contents of Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy in July. This led to calls from Democrats that Trump be impeached for soliciting help from a foreign power to discredit a political opponent.
After the president denied any wrongdoing, he was asked to release a transcript of the call with the Ukrainian leader, to which Trump replied, “I may do it because it was a very interesting call. It was a very nice call. I hope you get to see it and I hope you get to see it soon.”
The president also added: “I don’t think it’s a great precedent to be releasing calls with foreign countries, heads of foreign countries. So I don’t think it’s a great precedent.”
Monday evening, it was reported that Trump ordered his acting chief of staff to withhold $400 million in military aid for Ukraine the week before the presidents spoke on the phone. However, an official told the Washington Post that the funds were withheld due to the concern of corruption only, with no link whatsoever between the holding of aid money and the investigation of the Bidens by the Ukrainian president.
After congressional Democrats demanded documents from the White House about the Trump administration’s contact with Ukraine, three House committees, including the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight, called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to produce documents concerning the contacts between Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials.
The committees, led by Democrats, said in a letter that they “jointly request documents related to reported efforts by President Trump and his associates to improperly pressure the Ukrainian government to assist the president’s bid for reelection.”
Trump called the Bidens out on Monday, saying that the former vice president and his son Hunter were “corrupt.” Biden denied that he used his position as vice president to help his son, as well as the fact that he spoke to his son about his business in Ukraine.
Media outlets reported Friday that Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate the involvement of Biden’s son, and he also requested the leader to work with Giuliani. Trump acknowledged the discussion about Biden and his son in the July 25 phone call.
Trump was said to have asked the Ukrainian leader to investigate to see if Biden misused his position as vice president to threaten to withhold U.S. aid unless a prosecutor who was investigating the gas company where Biden’s son worked was fired.
Biden confirmed that he did want the prosecutor fired, but denies the intention was to help his son and said it was only because the said prosecutor allegedly failed to pursue major corruption cases.
A top official in Ukraine told Reuters that the country wanted to stay out of the political battle in the U.S. and that an attempt by either party to involve and take advantage of Ukraine would damage the relationship.
President Trump has since indicated that he would allow the transcript of the phone call in question to be revealed soon and expects an apology from the Democrats for their false accusations.
