Republican Senator Can’t Name Another Time Donald Trump Cared About Foreign Corruption Not Involving Joe Biden
Republican Senator John Kennedy said in an interview with CNN that Donald Trump’s pressure on the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden and his son was just an effort to root out corruption.
But when pressed by host Jake Tapper, Kennedy couldn’t think of another time that Trump has cared about foreign corruption not involving his potential political opponent.
“I think the president is against corruption, I think we all are,” Kennedy answered. But when asked for a specific time that Trump pressed a foreign leader, as he did in a phone call with the president of Ukraine, Kennedy could not name a time.
Tapper continued to press Kennedy, saying it seemed an unlikely coincidence that the only time Donald Trump was known to personally press a foreign leader to root out alleged corruption was when it involved a potential political rival in Joe Biden. Trump has repeated an unfounded conspiracy theory that Joe Biden called for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company that employed his son, Hunter Biden.
Though Donald Trump has been vehement that he did nothing wrong in pressuring Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, some Republicans have started to become more vocal in speaking against these actions. Others have focused on defending Trump on procedural grounds, not speaking about the allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine, but instead claiming that Democrats are being unfair in the impeachment inquiry against him.
In his interview with CNN, Kennedy said that the proceedings were “rigged” and being held in secret by Democrats.
This week, a group of House Republicans stormed a secure room where an interview related to the inquiry was taking place, demanding to take part. As The Inquisitr noted, one-quarter of the Republicans who took part in the protest were on the committees conducting the inquiry and would have been allowed in the room.
Democrats could soon be taking the evidence currently being conducted behind closed doors to the public, reports indicate. A new report said that Democrats could start holding public hearings before the end of November. Democrats reportedly hope to publicly question U.S. Ambassador William Taylor, who testified this week that he pushed back against what he saw as a quid pro quo from the White House to Ukraine, withholding military aid and tying it to a promise from Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into the company that employed Hunter Biden.
