The man at the center of the famous phone call that sparked the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is now officially calling for the impeachment of his potential 2020 presidential opponent.
After several of his fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls announced their full support of impeaching President Trump for asking his Ukrainian counterpart to “look into” alleged corruption involving Biden and his son, the former vice president has made it official: He now believes Congress should impeach Trump.
“To preserve our Constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, he should be impeached,” Biden told an audience at a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday, as reported by CNN. “He’s shooting holes in the Constitution. And we cannot let him get away with it.”
Biden said Trump has “already convicted himself” by allegedly “obstructing justice” by “refusing to comply with the congressional inquiry.”
“In full view of the world and the American people, Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation and committed impeachable acts,” the Democratic frontrunner declared.
“Trump will do anything to get re-elected, including violating the most basic forms of democracy,” he added. “It’s stunning, and it’s dangerous.”
“No president in history has dared to engage in such unimaginable behavior,” Biden alleged.
In response, Trump fired off a tweet pointing to the issue at the heart of his much-analyzed phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and suggesting that Biden was only getting behind the impeachment push because he is being rapidly overtaken in the polls by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment – and I did nothing wrong,” he wrote. “Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!”
So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment – and I did nothing wrong. Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019
Trump followed that tweet up with a video highlighting the corruption claims against Biden and calling for Americans to push back against the Democrats’ efforts to “overturn the election.”
Sleepy Joe Biden! pic.twitter.com/oZtytImXqq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2019
Biden’s slightly belated — at least compared to some of his Democratic rivals — call for impeachment follows the White House’s decision to, as The New York Times put it, “declare war on impeachment” in a letter to Democratic congressional leaders Tuesday.
“Your unprecedented actions have left the president with no choice,” the letter White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone sent to Democratic leaders Tuesday reads. “In order to fulfill his duties to the American people, the Constitution, the executive branch and all future occupants of the office of the presidency, President Trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances.”
While the Democrats initially launched their impeachment inquiry over claims of a quid pro quo issued by Trump to Zelensky, after a transcript released by the Trump administration showed no such overt “pressure,” Democratic leaders have increasingly shifted the rhetoric toward “obstruction.” In his statement on Wednesday, Biden notably fell in line with his fellow Democrats’ “obstruction” narrative.
The impeachment inquiry was sparked by a whistleblower complaint accusing Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” particularly by “pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.” Amid a flood of reports about the complaint, Trump authorized the release its release as well as the release of a transcript of the call in which Trump did ask for Zelensky to “look into” the Biden matter but offered no “quid pro quo” as initially alleged.
“I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down, and that’s really unfair,” Trump told Zelensky. “A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”