Joe Biden’s campaign jumped on President Trump’s free-wheeling, impromptu press conference at the White House, slamming Trump for suggesting Ukraine and China investigate the former vice president.
“As Joe Biden forcefully said last night, the defining characteristic of Donald Trump’s presidency is the ongoing abuse of power. What Donald Trump just said on the South Lawn of the White House was this election’s equivalent of his infamous ‘Russia, if you’re listening’ moment from 2016 — a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.
Trump told reporters on Thursday morning that 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 before departing on Marine One ahead of a flight to Florida.
Trump’s recommendation comes as House Democrats continue their impeachment inquiry into whether he improperly leveraged military aid to pressure Ukraine into digging up political dirt on Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
The former vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees during a 2016 trip to Kyiv 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 probed Burisma Holdings, an oligarch-owned energy company which Hunter Biden served as a board member. The younger Biden also has connections to Patrick Ho, a high-ranking Chinese businessman who was charged by the Justice Department with global corruption and bribery in 2017.
The rapid response approach to Trump’s comments represent a new tactic by Biden’s campaign. Joe Biden, 76, during a campaign rally in Nevada late Wednesday, defended himself and his family against Trump’s attacks.
“He is repeatedly smearing me and my family. His party fans out to carry the smear, are blanketing the airwaves — paid for by the special interests so well served by his presidency,” Delaware’s senator for 36 years said. “Let me make something clear to Trump and his hatchet men and the special interests funding his attacks against me: I’m not going anywhere.”
[Related: ‘This crosses the line’: Biden angrily accuses Trump of abusing power regarding Ukraine call]
Bedingfield reiterated Biden’s sentiments on Thursday, saying that “the White House itself has admitted that Donald Trump tried to bully a foreign country into lying about the domestic opponent he’s afraid to look in the eye next November.”
“Now, with his administration in free-fall, Donald Trump is flailing and melting down on national television, desperately clutching for conspiracy theories that have been debunked and dismissed by independent, credible news organizations. It could not be more transparent: Donald Trump is terrified that Joe Biden will beat him like a drum,” he said.
Trump, amid his 2016 campaign, came under intense scrutiny for his appeal to Russia. Critics said it was a call for a foreign government to hack Hillary Clinton, his opponent at the time, and interfere in the election. The president said his comments were intended as 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.”
