PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP says CHINA should look into former Vice President JOE BIDEN and his son HUNTER, on the eve of restarted trade negotiations between the two economic superpowers.
Despite an impeachment inquiry, TRUMP also doubles down on his call for UKRAINE to launch a probe into BIDEN and his son.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” TRUMP says.
BIDEN’S campaign shot back at TRUMP, saying he was dishing out a “grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country.”
TRUMP, speaking outside the WHITE HOUSE before departing for FLORIDA, mentioned CHINA after pressing his call for UKRAINE to launch a probe into BIDEN and his son — a request he made in a July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president that led Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry.
“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said when asked what he wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to do about the former veepee and his son.
“They should investigate the Bidens,” Trump said. “Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
TRUMP said that “I haven’t” asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to do so, “but it’s certainly something we should start thinking about.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what Trump believes “happened in China” related to the BIDENS.
The New Yorker delved into some of HUNTER BIDEN’S CHINESE connections in a lengthy piece in July.
TRUMP pulled CHINA into the brewing controversy just one week before a Chinese delegation was set to arrive in Washington to resume protracted trade negotiations.
Administration officials have for many months signalled optimism about reaching a sweeping deal with CHINA that addresses issues including trade deficits and intellectual property theft, and TRUMP told the U.N. General Assembly last week that he will not accept a “bad deal” with CHINA.
“I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power,” TRUMP said of the U.S.′ stance in the talks before he was asked about the BIDENS.
BIDEN communications director KATE BEDINGFIELD said in a statement that Trump’s comments on China are “this election’s equivalent of his infamous ‘Russia, if you’re listening’ moment from 2016 — a grotesque choice of lies over truth and self over the country.”
“Now, with his administration in free-fall, Donald Trump is flailing and melting down on national television, desperately clutching for conspiracy theories that have been debunked and dismissed by independent, credible news organizations,” Bedingfield said. “It could not be more transparent: Donald Trump is terrified that Joe Biden will beat him like a drum.”
House Democrats, led by Speaker NANCY PELOSI of CALIFORNIA, last week announced a formal impeachment inquiry based on a whistleblower complaint raising alarms about Trump’s phone call with ZELENSKY.
In that call, Trump asked if Ukraine could “look into” unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing against BIDEN and his son.
“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 said, according to a memorandum of the call released last week. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it, It sounds horrible to me.”
DEMOCRATS are looking into TRUMP’S apparent request for a foreign government to investigate BIDEN, who is currently the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary.
Many Democrats have also questioned the Trump administration’s decision to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to UKRAINE, without providing a clear explanation at the time.
