GOP dismisses Trump's Ukraine call as Democrats compare it to a 'mob shakedown'

WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans on Wednesday dismissed a call between President Donald Trump and the leader of Ukraine as much ado about nothing, despite a summary of the call showing Trump repeatedly pressing for an investigation into a political rival.

“What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President @realDonaldTrump.”

House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries labeled the call a “textbook abuse of power” but declined to say whether it’s evidence enough to impeach the president.

“We are in the midst of an impeachment inquiry,” Jeffries said.

The next step, he said, is getting a complaint filed by a whistleblower in the intelligence community.

“We can only imagine what is in that document,” Jeffries said, hours before the administration delivered the complaint to lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

The Democratic-controlled House passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the Trump administration to turn the complaint over to Congress immediately as required by law. It was the first chance for the House to weigh in on the controversy since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry Tuesday.

The vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, but that's largely because the administration had already delivered the complaint documents to Capitol Hill by the time the House voted on the resolution Wednesday evening.

SEE FOR YOURSELF: Read the text of President Trump's call with Ukraine president about Biden

Wednesday, the White House released a summary of a phone call in July with the Ukrainian president in which Trump pressed him to reopen an investigation into a Ukrainian energy company to focus on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. When Biden was Barack Obama's vice president and dealing with Ukraine's government, Hunter was a member of the board of Burisma, the energy company. The Obama White House said there was no conflict of interest.

House Republican leaders denounced Pelosi’s launch of an impeachment inquiry as disgraceful, unprecedented, unfounded and irresponsible as the summary was released.

“When this transcript comes out – is it out?” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in his weekly remarks to the news media. “I think at the end of the day, the speaker owes an apology to this nation, and I think it’s even a question whether she should stay in her job. We are done with this.”

McCarthy walked away as reporters asked him about the details of the call.

Republicans put out statements saying Trump did not unduly pressure the Ukrainian president.

“I’ve read the transcript in its entirety. It shows that there was no quid pro quo," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "The Ukrainian president admitted problems with corruption in the country and agreed that the issue at hand warranted looking into further."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who heads the House intelligence committee, said the call reads like a "classic, mafia-like shakedown of a foreign leader."

More: Trump acknowledges he delayed aid for Ukraine but says he didn't do it to force a Biden investigation

Schiff, along with the chairs of three other House committees investigating the president, issued a joint statement saying no quid pro quo is necessary to conclude Trump betrayed the country.

"The corruption exists whether or not Trump threatened – explicitly or implicitly – that a lack of cooperation could result in withholding military aid," they said.

Pelosi said the details of the call released Wednesday show she was right to begin steps toward possible impeachment.

“The transcript and the Justice Department’s acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the president’s lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry," she said. "Clearly, the Congress must act."

More: Read Nancy Pelosi's full remarks as she called for an impeachment inquiry of President Trump

Tuesday, the Senate unanimously backed a resolution offered by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., calling for the whistleblower complaint to immediately be sent to the intelligence committees.

That measure was much more limited in scope and restrained in language than the House resolution.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not object to the measure, even as he said it was not the appropriate way to address the issue.

"It doesn't serve the committee or its goals to litigate its business here on the floor or the television cameras," McConnell said. "Nevertheless, I agree that the (director of national intelligence) should make additional information available to the committee, so it can evaluate the complaint consistent with the statute and other procedures that exist to safeguard classified and sensitive information."

McConnell called Pelosi's impeachment inquiry announcement a "rush to judgment."

“It simply confirms that House Democrats’ priority is not making life better for the American people," McConnell said, "but their nearly three-year-old fixation on impeachment.”

'Deeply disturbing': Lawmakers read whistleblower complaint at center of Trump-Ukraine scandal

More: What Trump and Zelensky said in their July 25 phone call

Contributing: Christal Hayes, Bart Jansen and Nicholas Wu

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Impeachment: GOP dismisses Ukraine call, Dems call it a 'shakedown'