President Trump should be impeached, according to Joe Biden.
After initially supporting the impeachment inquiry by House Democrats, the former vice president dropped the condition of an investigation to join White House hopefuls Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, as well as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in backing the forcible removal of the sitting president.
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“Donald Trump has violated his oath of office betrayed this nation, and committed impeachable acts,” Biden said in New Hampshire. “To preserve our Constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, he should be impeached.”
Delaware’s senator for 36 years evoked New Hampshire’s “live free or die” motto as he spoke about George Washington’s warning to remain vigilant against foreign interference in domestic politics. He said Trump had now invited Russia, Ukraine, and China to meddle in United States elections.
“We all laughed when he said he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and get away with it,” Biden told the crowd. “No joke! He’s shooting holes in the Constitution and we cannot let him get away with it.”
Last week, Trump suggested if the Ukrainian government “were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens.”
“Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” the president said on the White House lawn.
House Democrats are looking into whether Trump improperly leveraged military aid to pressure Ukraine into digging up political dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
As vice president, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine didn’t fire its top prosecutor. Trump allies, like his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, claim there was a potential conflict of interest because the prosecutor had examined Burisma Holdings, an oligarch-owned energy company that paid Hunter Biden $50,000 a month as a board member. The younger Biden has connections to Patrick Ho, a high-ranking Chinese businessman who was charged by the Justice Department with global corruption and bribery in 2017.
Trump came under scrutiny during his 2016 campaign for his appeal to Russia, with critics describing it as a call for a foreign government to hack Hillary Clinton, his opponent at the time. The president insisted it was a joke.
“I will tell you this: Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
On Wednesday, Joe Biden said Trump’s behavior was “wrong” and “un-American.” He also defended his family against allegations of wrongdoing, saying Trump’s “lying is matched only by his manifest incompetence as president.”
“This isn’t a game, it’s deadly serious. The United States cannot afford to have a president who will abuse whatever power is available them to get reelected,” he said. “He’s basically a coward, he’s afraid. He’s afraid about just how badly I will beat him next November.”
