Discussing the allegations around Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden said it was hard to avoid the conclusion that the president had committed an impeachable offense.
“Based on material that they acknowledged today it seems to me it’s awful hard to avoid the conclusion it is an impeachable offense and a violation of constitutional responsibility. But I am confident of the ability of the House and Senate to deal with this, my job is just to go out and flat beat him,” he said to applause form the audience, adding that he didn’t want to let the issue distract him from his campaign.
Biden more than anyone could understandably become distracted by the allegations against President Trump—who, according to a former Ukranian presidential adviser, wanted to speak with Zelensky on condition that Biden and his son Hunter were discussed.
Indeed, in a summary of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky released on Wednesday, Trump said: “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. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
And the president once again repeated his desire to see Biden investigated in a tweet that said he supported transparency on the “so-called” whistleblower but “also insist on transparency from Joe Biden and his son Hunter, on the millions of dollars that have been quickly and easily… taken out of Ukraine and China.”
However, Biden told Kimmel he was not concerned about Trump’s allegations, saying: “This is not about me and my family. There is not one single solitary legitimate journalist in the world who’d give any credibility to this. They’ve debunked all of what he’s had to say for the past…since Giuliani started this a while ago,” Biden told Kimmel.
“But look there’s much more at stake than whether or not he’s acting so bizarrely. The idea that someone would call a head of a foreign state, ahead of time withhold significant military aid that’s badly needed in order to prevent the Russian separatists who are in Ukraine, from taking over Ukraine, and then ask basically can you cooperate with Rudy Giuliani—he’s coming over,” Biden continued.
“And the thing I learned, the thing we all learned recently, in that statement that 200 word statement released was talked about getting the Justice department engaged in this. It’s such a blatant abuse of power that I don’t think it can stand.”
