Trump tries out new defenses as damaging Ukraine evidence piles up - claims he had an 'obligation"

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/04/donald-trump-ukraine-china-joe-biden-027187

Trump tries out new defenses as damaging Ukraine evidence piles up
The president claims he had an 'obligation' to seek out foreign leaders' help.


President Donald Trump on Friday defended his brazen call for foreign governments to interfere in the 2020 election by launching investigations into the Bidens, repeatedly claiming he is duty-bound to encourage the probes while insisting his motivations are apolitical.

“This is not about politics. This is about corruption,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “And if you look and you read our Constitution and many other things, I have an obligation to look at corruption. I have an actual obligation and a duty.”

The president has been road-testing such justifications on social media since declaring Thursday that China and Ukraine should pursue unfounded accusations of corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son — despite facing an impeachment inquiry for urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do just that during a phone call in July.

“As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is done all the time,” Trump wrote Friday morning on Twitter. “This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!”

Trump previously asserted in a tweet Thursday night that he has “an absolute right, perhaps even a duty” as president “to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to help us out!”