Thursday morning, in a stunning exchange with reporters on the White House lawn, Donald Trump openly called on Ukraine to launch an “investigation” of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently the Democratic frontrunner to oppose Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Pressuring Ukraine to help his 2020 bid by investigating Biden, as The Inquisitr reported, is the exact offense for which Trump may be impeached, after Democrats last week launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump.
But in the same White House lawn exchange with reporters, Trump also said that the Chinese government “likewise should start an investigation” into Biden and his son, businessman Hunter Biden. The startling statement drew immediate calls from Democrats for the White House to hand over transcripts of Trump’s phone calls with Chinese President Xi Jinping, to determine whether Trump had improperly pressured Xi to launch an investigation into Biden.
Later on Thursday, a blockbuster CNN report revealed that in a June 18 phone call with Xi, Trump did indeed raise the topic of Biden, as well as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who now appears to be Biden’s top challenger in the race for the Democratic 2020 nomination. Whether Trump specifically asked Xi to launch an investigation of Biden or Warren remains unclear from the CNN reporting.
REPORTER: What exactly did you hope the Ukrainian president would do about the Bidens?
TRUMP: “I would think that if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation … they should investigate the Bidens … China likewise should start an investigation.” pic.twitter.com/gLVBjmSs3q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2019
Nonetheless, in that same phone call, according to the CNN report, Trump made a promise to Xi. Trump pledged that he would not make any public comments about China’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters who have been taking to the streets in Hong Kong since late March.
Trump appears to have kept that pledge. On October 1, police shot a Hong Kong protester, a teenage boy. Hong Kong’s police chief called the day one of the “most violent and chaotic days” of the protests. Trump addressed the violence by tweeting his congratulations to Xi “on the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China!” as USA Today reported.
But Trump made no mention of the violence carried out against the anti-government protesters, choosing instead to celebrate seven decades of Communist rule in China.
The official records of the call between Xi and Trump on June 18 was quickly placed on a highly classified National Security Council server, as CNN reported. Its reportedly the same server where White House officials placed transcripts of Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a whistleblower report released by the House Intelligence Committee .
In that call, Trump appeared to use the leverage of withheld military aid to Ukraine to push Zelensky into doing him the “favor” of investigating Biden. Records of calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia ruler Mohammed bin Salman have also been covered up by being placed on the top-secret server, as The Inquisitr reported.
