Former Vice President Joe Biden accused President Trump of covering up malfeasance in the president’s relationship with Ukraine.
Biden, who is running in the Democratic primary to challenge Trump for office in 2020, made the comments in a PBS News Hour clip of an interview released on Friday. Biden answered affirmatively when asked if he believed the president was engaged in a cover-up.
“Yes. Look, you have some of the finest people in the administration feeling they have to come forward and say exactly what they heard and what they knew,” Biden said, referring to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert.
Vindman alleged that the transcript of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not complete and left out key details that would suggest Trump attempted to leverage aid in exchange for the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden and his son.
“The idea that someone would invite a foreign power into our election and, in the process … withhold vital aid, military aid, voted for by the Congress, while Ukrainians are dying in the Donbass, that is Eastern Ukraine, in order to take on Russians who are there still killing them, killing these people, is one of the things that no president that I am aware of ever thought of doing,” Biden said.
Biden voiced support for impeachment on Oct. 9, accusing Trump of violating his oath of office and betraying the United States. Before calling for Trump’s impeachment, Biden accused Trump of covering up his administration’s actions in Ukraine.
His campaign released a statement saying Trump’s “willingness to sell out our national interest for his personal gain endangers our security and his attempts to cover it up put the stability of our democracy at risk.”
