President Donald Trump said that he has “an absolute right” to investigate corruption and, as part of that duty, ask other countries to help the United States in various probes.
“As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!” Trump said late Oct. 3.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said China and Ukraine should investigate what former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who was involved with businesses in both countries, were doing there in the past.
Trump said in another missive on Twitter that his calls for investigations aren’t “about a campaign” but “about corruption on a massive scale!”
“As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is done all the time,” he added on Friday morning.
“This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!”
Democrats have accused Trump of trying to interfere in the 2020 election by targeting Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she watched Trump “on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections.”
Biden has also taken up the theme, accusing Trump of trying to smear him and his family and refusing to back down from his attacks against the president.
“You’re not going to destroy me and you’re not going to destroy my family. I don’t care how much money you spend, Mr. President, or how dirty the attacks get. Trump knows there are no truths in the charges against me—none, zero. Every independent news organization that has reviewed the charges at length has found it to be a flat-out lie, his assertions, every single one of them.”
