After being criticized for a recently uncovered phone call to the president of Ukraine to ask the country to investigate the family of former Vice President Joe Biden,
US President Donald Trump has now urged yet another foreign government to conduct its own probe. On Thursday, Trump told reporters outside the White House that China should start an investigation into the Biden family for their involvement in a Chinese investment fund.
Trump described Biden's actions as being "just about as bad" as what had happened with Ukraine. In a separate interview, Trump clarified that he had not directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate Biden's family.
This was to prevent yet another piece of evidence that could be used against him in the formal impeachment inquiry.
The president is currently facing an impeachment inquiry for his July 25 phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart where he asked for an investigation into Biden's family. The Democrats are claiming that Trump is using his position to persuade foreign governments to investigate his political rival. Biden is currently a candidate for the country's 2020 presidential elections.
In an interview on Thursday about his call for China to launch a probe, Trump mentioned that it would be in the best interest of China to investigate Biden and his son given how they took out billions of dollars from the country. Trump reiterated that Biden had been kicked out of the Navy and suddenly had billions of dollars.
In previous interviews, Trump had repeatedly expressed his desire to uncover the Biden's alleged corruption scandal. Trump openly accused Biden and his son Hunter of using Air Force Two in 2013 to acquire over $1.5 billion from China that was used for his private equity fund.
Biden's camp has continually denied all of Trump's accusations. Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director, Kate Bedingfield, had stated that Trump was holding on to clear conspiracy theories that have already been debunked by credible media outlets and organizations.
Bedingfield further stated that Trump's action is a clear abuse of power and what the president has said is equivalent to his "Russia if you're listening" moment during his 2016 campaign rally.
During that time, Trump called on Russia to meddle in the elections and for it to try to find Hillary Clinton's emails. During Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, it was found out that Russian military intelligence had attempted to hack Clinton's office just hours after Trump's statement during his rally.
