President Donald Trump on Friday again denied making inappropriate comments to a foreign leader amid an ongoing dispute between the executive and legislative branches regarding the contents of a whistleblower complaint — which he claimed was lodged by a “highly partisan” member of the intelligence community.
“The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again!” Trump
“They think I may have had a ‘dicey’ conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a ‘highly partisan’ whistleblowers statement,” he
The president concluded: “Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!
”Following a classified briefing Thursday with the intelligence community’s inspector general, Schiff threatened to pursue legal action against the administration to gain access to the complaint, which acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to turn over to lawmakers.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the complaint involves a “promise” Trump made to a foreign leader, and the Post and The New York Times reported Thursday that it also has to do with Ukraine. POLITICO has not independently verified the Post's reporting.
In remarks sure to further exacerbate tensions between Congress and the White House, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani revealed Thursday evening that he had asked Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the leader of the Democrats' 2020 primary field, telling CNN: “Of course I did.”
Trump has maintained he did not act inappropriately during an exchange with a foreign leader,
“Knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe that I would say something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially ‘heavily populated’ call,” he
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine