"I put no pressure on" Ukraine, Donald Trump said Monday, September 23, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Calls for the US president's dismissal have intensified in recent days: since the revelation of a report of a whistleblower in the US intelligence services, the Republican is suspected of having pushed Kiev to investigate the son of his political rival Joe Biden.
While pressure is mounting on Democratic leaders of the US Congress to launch this explosive procedure, the Republican president has said he does not take the prospect of impeachment "seriously at all".
At the same time, he tried to turn the spotlight on Joe Biden, former vice president of Barack Obama and favorite of the Democratic primary. "Joe Biden and his son are corrupt," said Donald Trump in an exaggerated tone, echoing unsupported rumors of an alleged case of corruption in Ukraine, and pressure on a prosecutor. "If a Republican said what Joe Biden said, he would be entitled to the electric chair immediately," he said.
"Publish the transcript"
The day before, he confirmed that he had spoken this summer to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky about the alleged affair, mentioning explicitly Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian gas group from 2014.
The opposition suspects Donald Trump of having, during this conversation, taken advantage of his position to push Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, including using military aid as a pressure lever. The Republican President denies. Stating that his conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky had been "very honest", he said "hope" that his transcript could be published. "So, publish the transcript of the call," challenged Joe Biden.
The Democrats will not be satisfied anyway with a transcript: they claim that the White House delivers to Congress the report presented in August by the mysterious whistleblower.
Highly anticipated hearing on Thursday
Three powerful parliamentary committees, led by Democrats, have also threatened Monday the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo to force his services to deliver other documents concerning Ukraine. They concern "the attempts of the president and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to seek the help of a foreign power to intervene in the presidential election of 2020," the Democrats accuse.
Hitherto reluctant to take the unpopular path of impeachment, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened Donald Trump on Sunday with a "new stage in the parliamentary investigation" if he prevented the thrower alert to testify.
A deadline is looming: the public hearing scheduled Thursday of Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire. Nancy Pelosi wants him to give the details of the report on this occasion.
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which had been partisan for months of impeachment, appeared to be heated up, now explicitly denouncing its own leaders. In the White House Democratic candidates, rising star Elizabeth Warren again called this weekend to launch a dismissal procedure.
With AFP