Earlier this month, shortly before he left for a rally in Florida, President Donald Trump encouraged China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, commenting:
“China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”
That remark came just moments after Trump had discussed ongoing trade talks with China and said:
“If they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power.”
It now appears that Trump did indeed made dirt on the Bidens as part of the trade deal with China, according to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who sent out this tweet today:
As if an all-out pressure campaign on Ukraine to make up dirt on Trump’s political rivals wasn’t enough, it appears that the administration was making a trade deal with China contingent on getting manufactured kompromat on Biden. I’m demanding answers. https://t.co/De1FdQBKZQ
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) October 30, 2019
A couple of weeks ago, Trump’s trade representative Peter Navarro, was asked point blank if Trump was pressuring China to investigate the Bidens. On six separate occasions, Navarro refused to say whether or not the president had conditioned a trade deal on China agreeing to initiate some sort of Biden investigation.
However, Navarro did have this to say when CNN’s Jake Tapper asked about the trade deal being tied to dirt on the Bidens:
“They’ll force administration officials like me to have to reveal things that are happening behind closed doors in negotiations. I’m not going to talk about that stuff. If I answer that question, then you’ll ask me another question.”
Here’s video of @jimsciutto asking Peter Navarro if political investigations about the Bidens have come up during China trade talks, and Navarro declining to answer. pic.twitter.com/uaev1O960s
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 24, 2019
But as Wyden noted recently, the American people have a right to know the answer to that and other questions:
“The American people have every right to know if negotiators are using United States’ trade policy to advance President Trump’s personal and political interests.”
Wyden has sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Navarro in which he makes it clear they are going to answer questions or face obstruction of Congress charges, which could also wind up with each of them also being impeached.
It’s beginning to look like the House will need to add yet another charge to the articles of impeachment being drawn up against Trump.