Trump now wants China to probe Biden
President shrugs off impeachment threat
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is publicly encouraging China to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, snubbing his nose at an impeachment inquiry into whether a similar, private appeal to another foreign government violated his oath of office.
Mr Trump declared on Thursday at the White House, “China should start an investigation into the Bidens.” He said he hadn’t previously asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate the former vice president and his son Hunter, but it’s “certainly something we could start thinking about”.
By publicly egging on China, Mr Trump was amplifying the message he’d delivered in private to the president of Ukraine. That message, revealed by a government whistleblower, has spawned the impeachment investigation by the House. Mr Trump, who has defended his contact with Ukraine as “perfect”, went further in expanding his request to China, a communist world power that has much at stake in its relationship with the United States in an ongoing trade war.
The boldness of Mr Trump’s call on Thursday also suggests he will continue to act as though requests for other countries to investigate potential opponents in the 2020 election are normal, even in the face of broad condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans. It’s a tactic Mr Trump has used successfully before, pushing questionable secret conversations into the open, helping to inoculate him against charges that he is engaged in nefarious action, cover-ups or obstruction of justice.
Mr Trump doubled down on his comments later on Thursday, saying in a tweet: “As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!”.
Vice President Mike Pence stepped in to defend Mr Trump earlier in the day, saying Americans have a right to know about the wrongdoing the president alleges, despite no evidence to support wrongdoing by Mr Biden, a top contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination. House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who has a leading role in Congress’ impeachment inquiry, said Mr Trump’s comments suggest “he feels he can do anything with impunity”.
Mr Trump’s appeal to China evoked his public call in 2016 for Russia to track down his then-rival Hillary Clinton’s emails — a move many saw as an unprecedented appeal for foreign election interference. It is a violation of federal campaign finance law to solicit anything of value from a foreign government to help a campaign.
Mr Trump’s unprompted reference to China on Thursday came moments after he was asked about trade negotiations with the country. “I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power,” Mr Trump said.