House Democrats believe a newly released transcript of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proves their claim that he abused his office to try to find dirt on his chief political rival, Joe Biden.
“Donald Trump clearly pressured the Ukraine president to commence an investigation into the Biden family to dig up political dirt in order to bolster the president’s electoral prospects in 2020,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Wednesday. “That is textbook abuse of power, and the transcripts have become Exhibit A in that regard.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland called the documents’ release “very damning.” Hoyer said the call transcript shows Trump seeking help from Ukraine that would benefit him politically.
Transcripts released by the White House detailing the July 25 call show Trump asked Zelensky to work with Attorney General William Barr and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Trump sought help from Zelensky regarding allegations Biden worked to help his son, Hunter Biden, by threatening to withhold money from Ukraine if it did not fire a prosecutor targeting a gas company paying his son a hefty salary.
“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,” Trump told Zelensky, according to the transcript. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said the transcript clearly implicates Barr, although the attorney general issued a statement Wednesday indicating he is not involved with Ukraine in any way.
“The President dragged the Attorney General into this mess. At a minimum, AG Barr must recuse himself until we get to the bottom of this matter,” Nadler said Wednesday.
Democrats, prior to the release of the transcript, said Trump had already incriminated himself by admitting he asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens. The transcript is even more damning, they said, noting the request that the Ukrainian president work with the U.S. attorney general to dig up dirt on the Bidens.
“At first glance,” Massachusetts Rep. Kathleen Clark said, “It is even more damning than admissions we already had from the president.”
Democratic pundits, meanwhile, declared the transcript will serve as a smoking gun that will damage the president.
“We have heard a lot of, ‘Let’s wait to see the evidence,’” former Obama aide David Axelrod tweeted. “The transcript released today is devastating, and you’d have to bend yourself in extraordinary contortions to defend it. It also implicates the AG in what is a wholly improper political mission, which is new info.”
