President Trump’s allies are leaning into the controversy over a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, gambling that the increased attention to the story could actually hurt the president’s potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.
For days, Democrats have seized on allegations that Trump in July pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden family dealings – using military aid as leverage – and cited the reports to revive calls for the president’s impeachment.
But the firestorm, apparently related to a still-secret whistleblower complaint, has, in turn, opened the door for Republicans to revisit the original controversy involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Further, they allege, the details of that story suggest Biden did the same thing Trump is accused of doing — leveraging military aid to pressure Ukraine.
“The more they want to talk about Ukraine, the better,” Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Monday morning on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”
Giuliani has long been looking into the Bidens’ ties to Ukraine, claiming Hunter Biden improperly benefited from business dealings in Ukraine with energy company Burisma Holdings as a member of its board and questioning whether his dad helped protect him.
Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in April 2014, two months after Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president was ousted by protesters and as his father was heavily involved in U.S. efforts to support the new pro-Western government and its pledge to fight corruption. The hiring of the younger Biden immediately raised concerns that the Ukrainian firm, whose owner was a political ally of the ousted president, was seeking to gain influence with the Obama administration.
Two years later, then-Vice President Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless a top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired. Shokin was accused by many in Ukraine and in the West of being soft on corruption, but he also had been leading an investigation into Burisma’s owner.
Trump has claimed Shokin “was after” Hunter Biden and the vice president was trying to protect his son.
“The very thing they’re accusing President Trump of doing, Biden did,” Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told “Fox & Friends” Monday.
Fox News reported on the Biden controversy in April. The New York Times published a lengthy story on the matter in May. But the controversy flew largely under the radar until now. While the heat is on Trump over whether or not he pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, that firestorm has prompted multiple news outlets to revisit the original Biden controversy in order to provide context.
Trump allies are hammering that as the real scandal, as video of Biden once bragging about his role in having Shokin fired has gone viral.
Joe Biden brags about how he threatened to pull $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
The prosecutor, who was fired, was leading a corruption investigation into a company that employed Biden's son, Hunter pic.twitter.com/xZd3vIMbuL
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 20, 2019
Biden has denied wrongdoing, with Shokin having already been suspected of corruption before his dismissal, and hammered Trump over the reports on his phone conversation with Kiev. For his part, Trump addressed his phone call with Zelensky by calling the conversation “perfect” and insisting “there was no quid pro quo” and that he “said absolutely nothing wrong.” Trump also insists that the idea of withholding military aid from Ukraine is bogus because he gave the aid.
Trump also tweeted Sunday night, stating that the Ukrainian government backed him up by saying he did not pressure them during the phone call. In the same tweet, he said the “real story” was Biden pressuring Ukraine into firing Shokin.
..Breaking News: The Ukrainian Government just said they weren’t pressured at all during the “nice” call. Sleepy Joe Biden, on the other hand, forced a tough prosecutor out from investigating his son’s company by threat of not giving big dollars to Ukraine. That’s the real story!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2019
Giuliani is also trying to circulate new Biden allegations.
Giuliani accused Kiev on Monday of laundering $3 million to Hunter Biden and suggested the Obama administration turned a blind eye.
NY times reported the story in May, June ABC picked up the baton old hair plugs Creepy uncle Joe is not the choice of the deep state elites to crown.
To Quote potty mouth Gaff master Joe “this is a big F’ing deal”.
Obama mobilized the entire DOJ and IC on the strength of a weak rumor, which came from foreign sources, and conducted surveillance, spied on and investigated Trump and this was just A-OK. Now, Trump tells Ukraine to complete an investigation on the son of a Democrat candidate to see how corrupt he and his son are (something we really should know before voting commences) and it is an impeachable offense. Go figure.
Biden is dirty. He’s dirty or he wouldn’t be trying to divert attention back to Trump. I can only imagine the consternation of those loser candidates trying to decide if they should rely on Wahoo Warren and the media to take care of Corrupt Gropin’ Genius Joe or tear into him themselves.
Trump’s political play would have been to wait until Biden had the nomination, THEN drop this in his lap, but he wasn’t playing that.
Biden’s dirty and everyone knows it.