President Donald Trump openly called on China Thursday to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, making the request in front of television cameras even as the president faces a rapidly expanding impeachment inquiry centered on his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate the same political rival.
Speaking with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before departing for Florida, Trump was asked what he wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do regarding the Bidens.
Trump's answer was direct.
“I would think that if they were honest about it, they'd start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said.
Then he went further.
“Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said. “Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
The remarks immediately added another extraordinary dimension to the impeachment crisis engulfing the White House.
This Time, the Request Was Public
The House impeachment inquiry currently centers on Trump's July 25 telephone conversation with Zelensky.
According to a White House memorandum of that call released last week, Trump asked Zelensky to look into matters involving Biden and his son Hunter. Joe Biden is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump insists there was nothing improper about the conversation and repeatedly describes the call as “perfect.”
But today there was no private telephone conversation and no whistleblower complaint needed to reveal what the president wanted.
Trump said it himself, on camera, outside the White House.
He wants Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
And now he says China should investigate them as well.
Trump Says He Hasn't Asked Xi — Yet
Asked whether he had already requested that Chinese President Xi Jinping investigate the Bidens, Trump said he had not.
“I haven't, but it's certainly something we can start thinking about,” Trump said.
The timing is particularly significant because the United States and China remain locked in a bitter trade dispute.
Chinese negotiators are expected in Washington next week for another round of trade talks.
Trump also spoke Thursday about the considerable economic leverage the United States possesses over China.
“I have a lot of options on China,” Trump said. “But if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power.”
The president did not explicitly connect that leverage to his request for a Biden investigation.
Trump Targets Hunter Biden's Business Dealings
Trump and his allies have repeatedly accused Hunter Biden of benefiting from his father's position as vice president, focusing in part on the younger Biden's business dealings involving China.
Hunter Biden became associated with an investment fund involving Chinese partners following a 2013 trip to China in which he accompanied his father, then-Vice President Biden.
Trump has used those circumstances to allege corruption by the Biden family.
But no evidence has emerged establishing that Joe Biden used his office to secure the Chinese business arrangement for his son.
That has not stopped Trump from making the allegation a central part of his attacks on one of his most prominent potential 2020 opponents.
“I think Biden is going down,” Trump told reporters Thursday.
An Impeachment Inquiry Already Underway
Trump's comments come just nine days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry.
Democrats are investigating whether Trump abused the power of the presidency by seeking assistance from a foreign government against a domestic political opponent.
The inquiry accelerated after the release of a whistleblower complaint alleging that Trump sought foreign interference in the 2020 election and that White House officials subsequently attempted to restrict access to records concerning the Ukraine call.
Trump denies wrongdoing and has attacked the impeachment investigation as another partisan attempt by Democrats to overturn the result of the 2016 election.
But Thursday's comments present Democrats with something markedly different from the disputed accounts surrounding the Ukraine controversy.
There is no disagreement over what Trump said.
The president stood outside the White House and said it publicly.
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens.”
As Washington debates whether asking Ukraine to investigate a political rival constitutes an abuse of presidential power, Trump has now openly called on another foreign government to investigate that same rival.
And this time, the entire country heard him ask.