Ukraine call: Trump ‘talked corruption’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he spoke to Ukraine’s new president about his summer election and the fact that “we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son” contributing to corruption already happening in the Eastern European nation.
Trump appeared to stop just short of acknowledging that he discussed potential Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a July 25 telephone conversation that is now the basis of a whistle-blower complaint against the president.
“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place,” Trump said before departing on a trip to Texas and Ohio. “Was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”
“Ukraine’s got a lot of problems,” he added. “The new president is saying that he’s going to be able to rid the country of corruption and I said that would be a great thing. We had a great conversation. We had a conversation on many things.”
A person familiar with the matter has told The Associated Press that Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden, who worked for a Ukrainian gas company. The person wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump insisted anew Sunday that he said “absolutely nothing wrong” to Zelenskiy, describing the conversation as “absolutely a 10” and “perfect.” He did not answer directly when asked if he would release a transcript of the conversation to the public.
The president also seemed to suggest that his assurances that he behaved appropriately during the call should be enough to satisfy critics.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify Trump’s comments referencing the Bidens.
After arriving in Texas , Trump told reporters he will look into releasing details or a transcript of the call, but stressed that foreign leaders don’t want things like that to be made public.