Trump Calls for China to Investigate the Bidens

"Also, Thursday (10/3/19) came the revelation that Trump ordered the swift removal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, this year after hearing concerns from Giuliani, as well as former Texas congressman Pete Sessions, among others, outside of the administration, a senior administration official confirmed. "

"Trump’s role in the ambassador’s ouster was first reported by the Wall Street Journal."

"Giuliani complained in a recent interview with The Washington Post that Yovanovitch obstructed efforts to persuade the Ukrainians to investigate the Bidens.

"Following the nearly 10-hour deposition, House investigators released text messages provided by Volker illustrating how at Trump’s behest, senior State Department officials coordinated with a Ukrainian official and Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to leverage a summit between the two heads of state on the Ukrainian president’s promise to investigate the 2016 election and an energy company that employed Hunter Biden."

"Trump’s remarks underscored his claim that he did nothing improper by calling on a foreign power to investigate a domestic political opponent, a move his critics consider an egregious violation of his constitutional oath."

"Trump’s statement about China effectively globalizes the argument he has been making domestically, calling on other countries to stand with the United States under his rule or against it."

"[Trump's statment] could signal to other countries that one way to curry favor with the United States is by digging up damaging information about Democrats."

"Thursday [10/3/19] also marked the latest instance of Trump saying aloud something that almost certainly would be a major scandal if revealed from a private conversation."

"Trump’s request of China echoed his 'Russia, if you’re listening . . .' appeal during the 2016 campaign for the Russian government to steal Hillary Clinton’s missing emails and release them."

"'Someone should inform the president that impeachable offenses committed on national television still count,' Hillary Clinton tweeted Thursday."

"Trump and his allies have provided no evidence to back up their claims of wrongdoing [by the Bidens]."

"On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Democratic leaders denounced Trump’s China comments and appeared dumbfounded that the president had given them live ammunition to use against him in their impeachment proceedings."

"'The president of the United States encouraging a foreign nation to interfere again to help his campaign by investigating a rival is a fundamental breach of the president’s oath of office,' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters."

" 'It endangers our elections, it endangers our national security, it ought to be condemned by every member of this body, Democrats and Republicans alike.' " -Schiff said.

“She [Yovanovitch] is running around the streets of Ukraine going against the elected president of the United States,” Giuliani said."

"Nonetheless, Trump said Chinese authorities should look into Hunter Biden's business dealings in their country."

"Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy in February of 2014 after a positive drug test for cocaine in 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time."

"Fox News reported Tuesday, however, the former vice president appeared in a 2014 photo with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, who served on the board of Burisma Holdings at the same time as Hunter. Biden's allies maintain his intervention in Ukraine had to do with corruption concerns."

"Biden's allies maintain his intervention in Ukraine had to do with corruption concerns."

"When asked by a reporter if he had spoken to President Xi about the Chinese opening an investigation into the Bidens, Trump said, 'I haven’t but it’s certainly something we could start thinking about.' "

"Later in his conversation with reporters, Trump speculated that there could be more countries in which Hunter Biden had allegedly illicit business activity."

" Biden communications director and deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield called it 'a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country.' "

"Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted Thursday that Trump's comments underscore the importance of the impeachment investigation he is now helping lead."

" 'The President cannot use the power of his office to pressure foreign leaders to investigate his political opponents,' he said. 'His rant this morning reinforces the urgency of our work. America is a Republic, if we can keep it.' "

" 'He got kicked out of the Navy,' Trump told reporters Thursday. 'All of a sudden he’s getting billions of dollars. You know what they call that? They call that a payoff.' "

"Biden, speaking recently to reporters in Iowa, had said he'd 'never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.' "

" 'I think Biden is going down,' Trump said, 'because now you may very well find that there are many other countries that they've scammed, just like they scammed China and Ukraine and basically who are they really scamming? The U.S.A and it's not good.' "

"Trump spoke on Thursday (10/3/19) as his former special envoy on Ukraine, Kurt Volker, was giving evidence to House committees about what he knew about parallel contacts with Kyiv conducted by Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and aimed exclusively at obtaining compromising material on the Bidens."

"According to ABC News, among the materials Volker provided to Congress was a text message from the acting US ambassador to Kyiv, Bill Taylor, saying: 'I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.' "

"Another ambassador, Gordon Sondland, a Trump mega-donor and the current envoy to the European Union, disagreed."

[Songland said] "the president had made it 'crystal clear no quid pro quo of any kind,' and then texted to suggest they take the discussion off-line

"Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his dealings with the Ukrainian president, and has even accused an intelligence whistleblower of treason for providing evidence that the president used the power of his office – the withholding of military aid and a summit meeting – for his own political ends."

"However, Trump appeared to do just that [wrong dealings overseas] in front of the cameras on the White House lawn on Thursday, when he openly called for Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens."

"Hunter Biden later acknowledged having met a prospective partner during the trip, though a spokesperson told NBC News it was a social encounter."

"There is no evidence the Bidens did anything illegal."

"On Thursday (10/3/19), Trump also noted that Chinese negotiators are due in Washington for the latest round of high-stakes trade talks, and threatened negative consequences if Chinese leaders did not make concessions."

"In 2018, Ivanka Trump’s fashion and homewares business received initial Chinese approval for trademark applications days before her father announced a reversal in policy, dropping a US ban against ZTE, a Chinese telecoms firm that admitted breaking US sanctions on Iran and North Korea."