(AUDIO: Trump: “Just so you understand, the conversation I had with the president of Ukraine was absolutely perfect. …”)
THE WHITE HOUSE – That was President Donald Trump speaking to reporters Monday morning as he entered the United Nations. Trump is repeatedly defending himself from inquiries regarding phone calls he made to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, and if those phone calls are part of an extortion bid to get Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, on his oil and gas dealings internationally.
Lawmakers want to know if that ask was linked to releasing $250 million in funds for military assistance.
Sunday morning before boarding Marine One, Trump said of Biden and Ukraine:
(AUDIO: Trump: “Now, what you have to do is look at the corruption on the Democrat side… [Biden], I’m not looking to hurt him with respect to his son. Joe’s got a lot of problems. Joe’s got enough problems without that. But what he said was a terrible thing…It was an offer. It was beyond an offer. It was something where he said, ‘I’m not going to give billions of dollars to Ukraine unless they remove this prosecutor” who was prosecuting the company of Biden’s son and the son.)
Arriving at the UN on Monday, Trump flipped the narrative to Democrats:
(AUDIO: “What Biden did was wrong…We’re supporting honesty. … Very important to talk about corruption.”
Doug Christian, The White House
