Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Tuesday announced his support for impeachment proceedings against President Trump if the White House does not comply with all document requests from House Democrats.
He said failure to fully comply would leave Congress “no choice but to initiate impeachment.”
Mr. Biden, a front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the impeachment of Mr. Trump “would be a tragedy, but a tragedy of his own making.”
“Obstructing an effort to conduct an investigation is not the conduct of an American president,” he said. “It is an abuse of power. It undermines our national security. It violates his oath of office and it strikes at the heart of the sworn responsibility a president has to put national interest before personal interest.”
The announcement came shortly after Mr. Trump said he would comply with House Democrats demand that he release a transcript of his phone call with the president of Ukraine in which he discussed Democratic front-runner Joseph R. Biden and his son, Hunter.
The phone call was the impetus for the uptick in impeachment fever on Capitol Hill and among 2020 Democratic hopefuls.
Mr. Biden said the transcript would not be enough to ward off impeachment. He said the White House must also release the whistleblower complaint that began this latest imbroglio for Mr. Trump. The White House so far has blocked its release.
“The president should stop stonewalling this investigation and every other investigation into his wrongdoing,” Mr. Biden said.
A whistleblower accused Mr. Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian president in July to open a corruption investigation targeting Mr. Biden and his son, who served on a board of a Ukraine gas company.
Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California previously called for impeachment.
Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont was expected to endorse impeachment in a speech Tuesday in Iowa, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Biden has made his perceived electoral strength against Mr. Tump the foundation of his campaign. He routinely warns that the character of America will be forever altered by racism and bigotry if Mr. Trump wins re-election.
The intrigue of the Ukraine call is the latest example of Mr. Trump defiling America, Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Trump has said Mr. Biden was the one who did a “terrible thing” by abusing White House power.
During a visit to Kiev as vice president in 2016, Mr. Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if the country’s leader did not fire Ukraine’s chief prosecutor for failing to investigate corruption.
The prosecutor also was allegedly looking into the Ukrainian gas company where Hunter Biden collected paychecks, including as much as $3 million in wire transfers, according to reports.
Previously, Mr. Biden boasted about strong-arming Ukraine. Now he says that it was not improper and his son did not discuss foreign business deals.
Mr. Trump has acknowledged discussing Biden in the July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Trump administration was withholding U.S. aid from Ukraine at that time.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday he temporarily withheld military aid from Ukraine because he wanted other countries to contribute their fair share, denying he used it as leverage to pressure Ukraine’s leader to investigate Mr. Biden.
“As far as withholding funds, they were paid,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the United Nations. “They were fully paid. I want other countries to put up money. People called me and said ’let it go,’ and I let it go.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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