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by Axios | 9.22.19

President Trump confirmed to reporters on the White House South Lawn Sunday that he discussed Joe Biden and his son during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky on July 25.

\"The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption — all of the corruption taking place — largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine and Ukraine has got a lot of problems. The new president is saying that he's going to be able to rid the country of corruption, and I said that would be a great thing, we had a great conversation.\"

Why it matters: Trump said on Friday that \"it doesn't matter\" what he discussed with Zelensky, but appeared to be more forthcoming about the call on Sunday as reports in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal continue to reveal new details. Some have speculated that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine until Zelensky promised to investigate Biden and his son, but the president was adamant on Sunday that there was \"no quid pro quo.\"

\nNonetheless, Democrats have demanded that Trump release the transcript of the phone call to prove he has nothing to hide. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that the \"existence of an explicit quid pro quo\" isn't necessary, and that if Trump \"demanded a foreign government do his political bidding, that’s when he crossed the critical threshold.\"
\nHouse Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), meanwhile, said that if the allegations that Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden are true, then Democrats may have no other choice than to impeach him.
\nThe backlash has done little to dissuade Trump from continuing to call for an investigation, however, as the president has spent much of the weekend tweeting about how the Democrats and \"fake news media\" are \"protecting\" Biden from the allegations. The Trump campaign on Saturday sent out an email with the subject line: \"What is Joe Biden hiding?\"

The big picture: It's still not known whether the Biden conversation with Zelensky is at the heart of the whistleblower complaint that has led to a standoff between House Democrats and acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. Maguire has agreed to testify in open session next week before the House Intelligence Committee, where he is sure to face grilling over why he has refused to turn over the whistleblower complaint.

Go deeper: Schiff says impeachment may be the only remedy if Trump pressured Ukraine

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Politically Independent. Won’t listen to slogans, chanted mantras or generally any kind of marketing spin or “rebranding” crap. I firmly believe that everyone else is entitled to their erroneous opinions. Citizen vigilance and due diligence is price we must pay to live in a thriving, functional democracy.\nI fear that our citizens are too easily swayed by politician’s pablum about “babies”, “jobs” and now, in particular, perceived “enemies”. I fear that a citizenry focused on the “here-and-now” is easily tricked by short term benefits that have negative long-term consequences. I fear that our legislators are more concerned about buffing their constituents than looking out for the long-term welfare of our country- and are way too eager to provide those short-term benefits to the “here-and-now” crowd.\nI fear that honor is generally being sacrificed/replaced by expediency. I hear politicians eloquently argue for one side of an issue and later, when it’s to their benefit, just as eloquently argue for the opposite side. OK, so they are good at arguing- but what is that they actually believe? What is it that they actually stand for? An honorable person has values that persist even when it is not convenient or expedient. An honorable person has a moral compass that stops them from doing something wrong even if it is not illegal. A foul is a foul- even if the referee doesn’t catch you.\nI fear that each of our federal governmental branches have devised or discovered shortcuts which tend to protect them from the checks and balances our founders intended.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"jimk","issue_count":4,"is_following":null,"influence_score":44520,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":1516,"following_count":81,"position_count":538,"id":"9odrQBnb","partner_id":null}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":1043871,"body":"What more do we need to identify Trump as a criminal. He has gotten away with too much. End this illegal presidency!\n ","parent_type":"Article","parent_id":34856,"created_at":"2019-09-22T20:38:05.650Z","liked":false,"like_count":8,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/comments/1043871","likers":"https://www.causes.com/api/v1/likers?likeable_id=1043871&likeable_type=Comment"},"article_id":34856,"shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/comments/1043871.png","note":{"icon":"angry","color":"#624960","stance":"angry"},"note_text":"Angry","note_color":"#624960","user_id":"gZA632ym","liker_ids":["49VrwED9","1ZxK757W","MZP0oOqZ","jW2ovXJZ","jW2oj1kZ","zm8wROXZ","90o6k10x","9odrQBnb"]}}

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