Former Vice President Joe Biden now says that Trump committed an “impeachable offense” in his much-ballyhooed July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Biden said that Trump could be impeached based on the provided transcript of his July phone call with Zelensky. A plain reading of the transcript, however, gave no indication of a quid pro quo wherein Ukraine would investigate the former vice president using his influence to have a prosecutor fired for investigating his son’s business dealings.
“Based on the material they acknowledged today, it seems to me it’s awful hard to avoid the conclusion that it is an impeachable offense and a violation of constitutional responsibility,” Biden said, as reported by HuffPost.
Biden then attempted to change the subject by adding that his only job right now is to beat Trump come 2020, thereby leaving the impeachment process up to the House and Senate.
“My job is just to go out and flat beat him,” Biden said. “I can’t let this distract me in a way that takes me away from the issues that really are the reason why I’m running.”
The former vice president’s comments regarding impeachment stand in line with those of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said on Tuesday that she supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opening an impeachment inquiry without ever having read the “whistleblower” complaint or the actual transcript of President Trump’s phone call with Ukraine.
“I’m in favor of moving toward impeachment,” Clinton told People Magazine. “I did not come to that decision easily or quickly, but this is an emergency as I see it. Because he is undermining the more perfect union that is the goal of our collective efforts.”
“This latest behavior around Ukraine, trying to enlist the president of Ukraine in a plot to undermine former Vice President Biden or lose the military aid he needs to defend against Trump’s friend, Vladimir Putin and further Russian aggression — if that’s not an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is,” she continued. “I know a lot about it, because I was the one who wrote the original memo back in 1974 about what was an impeachable offense. I think that we will be having a serious undertaking in the House now. And I don’t see any alternative to that.”
“He has intimidated his entire political party. I know that it takes guts if you’re in a political party that is run by or dominated by someone who is a reckless, corrupt, human tornado, who cares only about himself. I understand. That’s hard. Because he has whipped up a certain segment of the electorate to go along with him no matter where he takes them. But they have to put country before party and there is no substitute to a careful, thoughtful response.”
As reported by The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti, the Democrats are quickly facing an uphill battle to even launch an impeachment inquiry, with several moderate lawmakers expressing frustration behind closed doors that radical progressives have completely hijacked the party’s agenda.
“Not every Democrat the media is counting as in favor of impeachment is on the same page,” reported Zanotti. “NBC News reports that the 218 votes all back ‘some form’ of impeachment, but they can’t agree on which form — a major hurdle for Democratic leadership looking to kick off the process as soon as possible so as to retain the most benefit from it in the 2020 presidential election.”