Joe Walsh ― one of a handful of Republicans mounting primary challenges to President Donald Trump’s reelection bid ― declared Friday that Trump’s alleged attempt to seek election help from Ukraine is tantamount to “giving the country the middle finger.”
“It’s clear that this president, and this is a serious thing to say, doesn’t give a damn about this country,” Walsh told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “To put it quite simply, we have a president who doesn’t have any respect for the rule of law, he doesn’t have any respect for truth, and he’s got no guardrails.”
Trump continues to be plagued by a whistleblower complaint alleging that he “is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” On Tuesday, reports that he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to assist with a probe of former Vice President Joe Biden, based on corruption accusations for which there is no evidence, were enough to prompt House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to announce an impeachment inquiry.
A summary of Trump’s July conversation shows that he did, in fact, urge Zelensky to partner with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr in an investigation of the Bidens ― and that Trump requested the favor while American military aid was being withheld from Ukraine.
“He’s giving the country the middle finger, and Republicans better understand that,” Walsh told Keilar on Friday. “Donald Trump, again, acting like some sort of mob boss, he thinks everything is about him and it’s not about the country.”
As details continue to emerge of Trump’s actions, he has repeatedly attempted to defend himself, tweeting out a deluge of attacks on Democrats and on the whistleblower in an effort to undermine his credibility.
According to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the whistleblower, whose identity has not been made public, wants to appear before the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff chairs. No timeline for that has been announced.