Energy boss backs Trump
Sez Ukraine call not about Biden
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Saturday that he asked President Trump to make the phone call at the center of the impeachment inquiry because it was “important” for the country’s energy needs and had nothing to do with former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter.
He also hardened his tone on the impeachment hearings, vowing not to testify before a congressional inquiry he said was “not only illegal, but improper.”
Perry told The Associated Press that he urged Trump to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to offer Ukraine “an alternative to Russian gas” and said he never once heard the word Biden or Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that once employed Biden’s son.
The impeachment inquiry is investigating whether Trump was withholding military aid unless Zelensky went public with a promise to investigate the Bidens.
Regarding Zelensky, Perry said he wished to deliver the same message he had to his predecessor.
“We had had enough conversations with him that we had felt comfortable that he actually was going to do what he said he was going to do when he ran for office, which was have that type of transparency, have that type of anti-corruption efforts,” Perry said in Dubai, where he was meeting local officials and attending an international youth robotics contest. “(I said) Mr. President, call this guy. It’s good for him and it’s good for us and we can go forward in helping supply gas, preferably U.S. gas, to Ukraine. Pretty straightforward story.”
Perry recently announced that he will leave his job by the end of the year, citing the nation nearing its goal of energy independence. Perry, 69, a former Texas governor, has been energy secretary since March 2017, making him one of the longest-serving members of Trump’s cabinet, which has seen huge turnover.
But the move comes as he’s been caught up in scrutiny over the role he played in the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
A top U.S. diplomat, William Taylor, has named administration officials who he said told him Trump had demanded of the Ukrainians an investigation of Burisma. The elder Biden is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
No evidence has emerged that Perry explicitly pressured Ukrainian officials to comply with Trump’s push. He has been subpoenaed for his involvement in the call but says he won’t cooperate.
“Congress is not following both their own rules and precedent with this and until they do that, I don’t intend to be a participant in what I consider to be not only illegal but improper. They need to have a vote,” he said Saturday.
Earlier this month, in his first comments about speaking to Congress, Perry indicated he was “going to work with Congress and answer all their questions.”
Trump told a group of Republican lawmakers that it was Perry who had prompted the July phone call in which Trump asked Zelensky for a
“favor” regarding Biden, according to an AP source familiar with the president’s remarks.
But Perry said he didn’t feel he was being set up as the fall guy.
“I don’t consider President Trump trying to put the blame on me, I consider President Trump to be telling the truth. I didn’t ask him to do a favor,” he said. “I asked the president to make the call.”
Meanwhile, a day after Trump paid tribute to Rep. Elijah Cummings, who was eulogized by two former presidents during a Baltimore funeral service that drew lawmakers from both parties but not the president himself, he attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday in tweets reminiscent of his July outburst about Cummings’ congressional district that was full of racial undertones.
“I can’t believe that Nancy Pelosi’s District in San Francisco is in such horrible shape that the city itself is in violation of many sanitary & environmental orders, causing it to owe the Federal Government billions of dollars — and all she works on is Impeachment,” Trump tweeted Saturday.
He continued: “We should all work together to clean up these hazardous waste and homeless sites before the whole city rots away. Very bad and dangerous conditions, also severely impacting the Pacific Ocean and water supply. Pelosi must work on this mess and turn her District around!”
Trump, who has made a habit of attacking American cities, depicting them as dirty and unsafe, has shown scant interest in environmental issues save for instances where he has criticized leaders in California over water management and wildfire mitigation efforts.
Los Angeles Times contributed.