Trump 'accused of what Biden admitted he did'

Joe Biden campaigning for president May 19, 2019 (Video screenshot)

President Trump is being accused of threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine if its government doesn't investigate the business dealings of Joe Biden's son Hunter, but that's what Joe Biden himself did, argued Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., in an interview.

"The very thing they're accusing President Trump of doing Biden did and admitted that he did," Nunes said in a Fox News interview Sunday with Maria Bartiromo, the Gateway Pundit reported.

Hunter Biden made $50,000 a month as a board member of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings while having no experience in the field. His father, the current frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, admitted in a 2018 talk to the Council on Foreign Relations that he threatened to withhold more than $1 billion in loan guarantees if Ukraine didn't fire the prosecutor who happened to be investigating Hunter.

It's unclear if the request was directly tied to Hunter Biden's case, Fox News noted, because other nations also wanted the prosecutor to be sacked.

But while the former vice president has insisted he never spoke with his son about his dealings with Burisma, Hunter Biden told the New Yorker in a story published in July that his father did discuss the Burisma relationship:

As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: "Dad said, I hope you know what you are doing,' and I said, 'I do.'"

Biden says that Trump is trying to "smear" him because he knows he'll "beat him like a drum" pic.twitter.com/NrTKffTAIb

— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 21, 2019

Nunes said the new scandal reminds him of another one.

"Doesn't it feel like the Russia hoax all over again? It's like the Ukrainian hoax," he said.

The accusations against President Trump arose last week when the Washington Post reported a whistleblower complaint, according to a person familiar with the matter, raised concern about a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday: "President Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden's son, according to people familiar with the matter, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani on a probe that could hamper Mr Trump’s potential 2020 opponent."

Last week, the former vice president became visibly irritated when Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked him about his actions with Ukraine regarding his son, declaring, "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings."

Jabbing his finger at Doocy, Biden scolded the reporter for not focusing on Trump.

"I know Trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president," Biden said. "You should be asking him why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader. ... You should be looking at Trump."

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, said in a CNN interview he wants an explanation for why Biden and his son have told conflicting stories.

"Well clearly something needs to be cleared up at this point. Right? So yes, of course, I would want an explanation for that."

Joe Biden brags about how he threatened to pull $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine if it didn’t immediately fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

The prosecutor, who was fired, was leading a corruption investigation into a company that employed Biden's son, Hunter pic.twitter.com/xZd3vIMbuL

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 20, 2019

On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested in a letter to lawmakers the whistleblower case could lead to impeachment.

"If the Administration persists in blocking this whistleblower from disclosing to Congress a serious possible breach of constitutional duties by the President, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation," she wrote.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures" that the Justice Department should launch a special investigation of the Biden family's business dealings with Ukraine.

Former assistant U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy,
in a column for National Review, wrote that if Joe Biden "used his political influence to squeeze a foreign power for his son’s benefit, that should be explored."

"Of course," he said, "Trump should not use the powers of his office solely for the purpose of obtaining campaign ammunition to deploy against a potential foe."

But McCarthy noted that all presidents "who seek reelection wield their power in ways designed to improve their chances."

"If Trump went too far in that regard, we could look with disfavor on that while realizing that he would not be the first president to have done so. And if, alternatively, the president had a good reason for making a reciprocal commitment to Ukraine, that commitment would not become improper just because, collaterally, it happened to help Trump or harm Biden politically."