Renewed Trump impeachment talk after Ukraine phone call

Democrats have revived talk of impeachment over reports Donald Trump asked Ukraine to carry out a probe designed to hurt Joe Biden.

Donald Trump in Houston, Texas, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is touring the US this week. Picture: AFP.

Senior Democrats have revived talk of impeachment hearings over reports that Donald Trump asked a foreign government to undertake a probe designed to damage his potential opponent in the 2020 election, Joe Biden.

Scrutiny over the US President’s interactions with Ukraine has ricocheted across Washington and on to the campaign trail after The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump repeatedly pressured new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ­investigate the former US vice- president’s anti-corruption efforts in the country while his son Hunter Biden was also working there.

Mr Trump defended his call with Mr Zelensky as routine while again suggesting Mr Biden and his son should be investigated — though neither have been accused of wrongdoing over their work in Ukraine.

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was ­largely corruption — all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don’t want our people like vice-president Biden and his son (contributing) to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Mr Trump said before departing for a trip to Texas to join visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Mr Trump ­repeatedly pressured his Ukrainian counterpart during the call to work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani on a Biden probe, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those revelations came amid an escalating standoff between Democratic legislators and the Trump administration over a whistleblower complaint about Mr Trump’s communications with a foreign leader that may ­involve the Ukraine call.

Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky plan to meet on the sidelines of the UN general assembly this week.

As more details emerge about the July call, Democrats in congress and on the 2020 campaign trail pressed anew to begin ­impeachment proceedings.

“Congress failed to act and now Donald Trump has shown that he believes he is above the law,” Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said. “He has solicited another foreign government to ­attack our election system. It is time for us to call out this illegal behaviour and start ­impeachment proceedings right now.”

Leading Democratic congressman Adam Schiff said impeachment “may be the only remedy” if Mr Trump was found to have courted foreign intervention in the 2020 election.

“We may very well have crossed the Rubicon here,” he told CNN.

“This would be, I think, the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office during this presidency, which says a lot, but perhaps during just about any presidency.’’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, has been reluctant to open an impeachment inquiry.

The Wall Street Journal