By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
President Donald Trump denies he pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter in a July phone call, but Democrats in Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation want to know more about what was actually said, and one member suggests that if true, the allegations could lead to impeachment proceedings against the Republican President.
“If it is as it has been reported that the President of the United States enlisted a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political opponent or his political opponent’s family, this is a very grave situation that would warrant moving forward with articles of impeachment against this president,” said Congressman David Cicilline, a member of the House leadership and a staunch opponent of President Trump.
“And if the president was using this opportunity in which military aid to Ukraine was being held up at the same time he was demanding that they investigate his political opponent, that raises very, very serious concerns,” said Cicilline.
His concerns were echoed by Rhode Island’s two Democratic Senators.
“I don’t thin k any American, wherever you come from, believes that the president should be using national security foreign aid funds to blatantly and specifically and explicitly ask for essentially political favors,” said Senator Jack Reed.
“And if that’s the case, it should prompt not only serious inquiry but further action,” said Reed, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and ex-officio member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“It has a bad odor about it and we need to get to the bottom of it,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During a meeting Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations, Trump said he hoped people would be able to eventually see a transcript of the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He says if his critics ever see it, they will be “very disappointed.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
