Impeachment updates: Biden defends himself from Trump attacks
The latest news on the impeachment inquiry
- Former Vice President Joe Biden told “60 Minutes” his son Hunter did nothing wrong by taking a seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
- On the July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Washington— Former Vice President Joe Biden defended himself from President Trump’s attacks in an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, saying his son “did not do a single thing wrong” by accepting a seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company while the elder Biden was in office.
“I’ve never discussed my business or their business, my sons’ or daughter’s. And I’ve never discussed them because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it and they have to make their own judgments,” Biden said.
Biden also chided Mr. Trump for his own children’s activities while in office. If elected, he said, his children “are not going to have offices in the White House” or attend Cabinet meetings.
“It’s just simply improper because you should make it clear to the American public that everything you’re doing is for them. For them,” Biden said.
Mr. Trump’s eagerness to get Ukraine to investigate Burisma, the energy company that employed Hunter Biden, is at the center of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry in the House. The president urged the president of Ukraine to look into the Bidens on the two leaders’ now-infamous July 25 phone call.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are preparing for a slew of closed-door depositions with witnesses this week, including the first with a member of the White House staff. Tim Morrison, a National Security Council official whose work includes U.S. policy toward Ukraine, is set to be deposed on Thursday.
A former White House official, Charles Kupperman, planned to defy a subpoena to appear before the House committees leading the impeachment probe for a deposition Monday morning, according to his attorney.
Gowdy says Trump’s demand to Ukraine “can’t be” impeachable
6:00 a.m.: Former Congressman Trey Gowdy on Sunday seemed to suggest that Mr. Trump did nothing wrong by conditioning military aid if it was to designed to unearth information about election meddling efforts by foreign actors.
“Well, you know, that means something for something,” he told “Face the Nation” of the supposed “quid pro quo” at the center of the impeachment probe. “I need to know what both of those somethings is.”
“If the something is, ‘We’re not going to give you aid until you help us figure out who tried to interfere with the levers of democracy in 2016’ — Margaret, I can tell you if a Democrat did that we’d be adding something to Mt. Rushmore,” he said.
If it was the case that Mr. Trump and his allies inside and outside the administration pressured the government of Ukraine to help the U.S. determine who else, other than Russians, might have attempted to meddle in the 2016 election, Gowdy said the actions would not amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the constitutional standard for impeachment.
“I mean, we spent two years as a country trying to figure out who tried to interfere with our elections. So clearly, it can’t be an impeachable offense,” he added.
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Former Bolton deputy to defy subpoena
5:30 a.m.: Charles Kupperman, the deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, was scheduled to appear before the joint committees carrying out the impeachment inquiry, but according to his attorney, he will not be testifying Monday.
Kupperman, who was subpoenaed by committees, has also been told by the White House that he could not appear before the committees. Torn between the legislative and executive branch directives, Kupperman filed a lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting that the court decide for him whether he “should comply with the House’s subpoena or with the President’s assertion of immunity and instruction that he not appear and testify,” Kupperman’s attorney, Charles Kupperman said in a statement last week.
According to his attorney, Kupperman took “no position” on whether Congress or the White House should prevail. He only wanted to do whatever the judicial branch deemed to be the lawful and binding course of action.
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