Trump admits he discussed Biden with Ukraine, but says he was just worried about corruption

President Trump confirmed on Sunday that he discussed the family of former Vice President Joe Biden during a phone call with Ukraine’s president that sits at the center of a whistleblower’s complaint about alleged abuse of power within the White House. The president argued that he did not do anything wrong during the call, but several prominent Democratic lawmakers are calling the whistleblower complaint grounds for impeachment.

Speaking to reporters Sunday before heading to a rally with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump described his July 25 conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “perfect.” The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Trump attempted eight times on the call to pressure the foreign leader to launch an investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, and his business ties to Ukraine, an allegation that Trump has firmly denied.

The conversation was “largely [about] the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Trump told the gathered reporters.

Later, he told reporters he “had every right to” bring up Biden because “we don’t want a country that we’re giving massive aid to to be corrupting our system.”

That aid is central to questions over Trump’s call: $250 million in assistance had been due to that country over the summer. Its release had been delayed, but Trump agreed to send it to Ukraine this month, facing pressure from Congress. That money has the president’s critics concerned he withheld the aid in an attempt to convince his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden.

Biden is a leading frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, and damaging information could hurt his candidacy. There is absolutely no evidence he was involved in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, nor is there evidence that he did anything illegal, despite President Trump’s suggestions otherwise. Biden has called for a transcript of the phone call to be released, saying in a statement that the alleged behavior is evidence “there is truly no bottom to President Trump’s willingness to abuse his power and abase his country.”