Senator Lindsey Graham is speaking out after the White House released a transcript and notes pertaining to Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was the subject of a whistleblower report.
During that 30-minute phone call, according to the transcript, President Trump asked Zelensky to look into why the investigation of Biden’s son ended. That investigation was regarding the business dealings of Biden’s son, who was a board member of a Ukrainian gas company that had a reputation for corrupt practices.
“Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it… it sounds horrible to me,” Trump said, according to notes of the call.
Later Trump stated: “I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair.”
President Trump was referring to a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the oil company, who was later let go before finishing his investigation.
Trump later noted the United States practice of giving aid to the Ukraine, stating that “The United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.”
In response to the transcript, Senator Lindsey Graham pushed back on the Democrat’s characterization of the call as unethical.
“The vice president’s son was receiving money from the Ukraine, was on the board of a company that was the subject of an investigation,” Graham said. “The question that got me going was, did the president of the United States suggest to the Ukraine that I would hold money unless you go after my political rival? The answer is absolutely not.”
Later in the call with the Ukrainian leader, President Trump brought up the subject of Hillary Clinton’s emails, asking if the nation might possess a server that contained some of the emails.
“I would like you to do us a favor, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation. The server, they say Ukraine has it,” Trump said according to the transcript.
He went on to say: “I would like you to get to the bottom of it. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”
Lastly, Trump mentioned the testimony of the former special counsel Robert Mueller, which had taken place the day before the call.
“As you saw yesterday,” Trump said, “that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance.”
Democrats in Congress are now moving forward with impeachment inquiry proceedings.