Trump's push for China to investigate Bidens is his new 'Russia, if you're listening' moment, Biden campaign says
Former Vice President Joe Biden sees something beyond legal uncertainty in President Trump's continued calls to investigate him.
Like he did in a July phone call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump on Thursday again called for Zelensky — and for China's Xi Jinping — to start an investigation into the Biden family. But Biden's campaign says it doesn't see Trump's fixation as a threat. It's just another step in Trump's "ongoing abuse of power," Biden's 2020 Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said in a Thursday statement.
Trump's latest call "was this election's equivalent of his infamous 'Russia, if you're listening' moment from 2016," Biden's campaign said, alluding to how Trump called for Russia to "find" Hillary Clinton's missing emails. (They apparently did look, by the way). It's also a sign that, "with his administration in free-fall," Trump is "desperately clutching for conspiracy theories that have been debunked," the statement continues.
Joe Biden's deputy campaign manager @KBeds: "What Donald Trump just said on the South Lawn of the White House was 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." pic.twitter.com/n29jK5TGA5
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 3, 2019
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has become Trump's chief antagonist in his Ukraine scandal, had a more direct response.
The President cannot use the power of his office to pressure foreign leaders to investigate his political opponents.
His rant this morning reinforces the urgency of our work.
America is a Republic, if we can keep it. https://t.co/9KDCx1hVjs— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 3, 2019
