Updated Sep 22, 2019

Schiff: Impeachment may be the only remedy if Trump pressured Ukraine on Biden

Zachary Basu

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that if the allegations that President Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden are true, then Democrats may have no other choice than to impeach him.

"The president is pushing us down this road and if in particular — after having sought foreign assistance and welcomed foreign assistant in the last presidential campaign as a candidate, he is now doing the same thing again but now using the power of the presidency — then he may force us to go down this road. I've spoken with a number of colleagues over the last week and this seems different in kind and we may very well have crossed the Rubicon here."

Why it matters: Schiff has been one of the key senior members of Democratic leadership — along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi — to resist endorsing impeachment without public support. This has put him at odds with over half the Democratic caucus and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who has said his committee is already conducting an "impeachment investigation."

  • Schiff acknowledged that it's not clear yet whether Trump's alleged pressure on Ukraine is at the center of the whistleblower complaint that set off this controversy, but said that it would nonetheless be "the most profound violation of the presidential oath...perhaps during any presidency. There is no privilege to engage in underhanded discussions."

Between the lines: Pelosi knew Schiff's impeachment comments were coming. She and Schiff spoke this weekend about Ukraine and coordinated their responses, a source familiar with their conversation tells Axios' Alayna Treene.

The other side: Trump told reporters before boarding a flight on Sunday that the conversation he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 was perfectly legitimate: "[It] was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place. It was largely the fact that we don't want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.“

  • Schiff called on Trump to release the transcript of the call after the president claimed that there was no "quid pro quo" involved in their discussion about Biden: "Clearly he's afraid for the public to see."

Go deeper: Read the intel watchdog's letters about "urgent" whistleblower complaint

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Zachary Basu

Trump confirms he discussed Biden with Ukrainian president

Trump speaks to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, D.C., on September 22, 2019. Photo: Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump confirmed to reporters on the White House South Lawn Sunday that he discussed Joe Biden and his son during a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.

"The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption — all of the corruption taking place — largely the fact that we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine and Ukraine has got a lot of problems. The new president is saying that he's going to be able to rid the country of corruption, and I said that would be a great thing, we had a great conversation."
Go deeperArrowSep 22, 2019
Jacob Knutson

Giuliani says he will comply with impeachment inquiry if Trump tells him to

Rudy Giuliani on "This Week."

President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday that he will cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee in its impeachment investigation of Trump and Ukraine if the president tells him to, but called Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) an "illegitimate chairman."

Why it matters: The committee is quickly moving ahead with its investigation into allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, issuing a subpoena for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday and scheduling a series of hearings and depositions for this week. Schiff later said on ABC that the committee will "make that decision down the road" on whether it would be "productive" to bring in Giuliani, a Trump loyalist who is notoriously combative in cable news interviews.

Go deeperArrowSep 29, 2019
Zachary Basu

Trump demands to meet whistleblower and accuses Adam Schiff of "treason"

Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump continued his weekend-long tirade against Democrats and the whistleblower whose complaint about his interactions with Ukraine have prompted a formal impeachment inquiry, tweeting:

Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called "Whistleblower," represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way. Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress. His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason. In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the "Whistleblower." Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!
Go deeperArrowSep 29, 2019