Fact-checking Trump’s latest claims on Biden and Ukraine

“That call [with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] was a great call. It was a perfect call, a perfect call. What wasn’t perfect is the horrible thing that Joe Biden said. And now he made a lie when he said he never spoke to his son. I mean, give me a break. He’s already said he spoke to his son. And now he said yesterday very firmly. Who wouldn’t speak to your son? Of course you spoke to your son. So, he made the mistake of saying he never spoke to his son. He spoke to his son. But, more importantly, what he said about the billions of dollars that he wouldn’t give them unless they fired the prosecutor, and then he bragged about how they fired the prosecutor, and then they got the money.”

— President Trump, speaking to reporters, Sept. 22, 2019

“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

— Former vice president Joe Biden, speaking to reporters, Sept. 21

“Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden’s statement, because it was disgraceful, where he talked about billions of dollars that he’s not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor is taken off the case. So, somebody ought to look into that.”

— Trump, remarks to reporters, Sept. 20

President Trump is under fire for having repeatedly raised Joe Biden, a possible opponent in the 2020 presidential race, in a July conversation with Ukraine’s president at a time when the struggling nation expected to receive military aid for its nascent war against Russia on its eastern border. (The aid eventually arrived after demands from Congress.) The same conversation appears to figure in a whistleblower complaint from the intelligence community, but the details are not entirely clear because the administration has blocked the sharing of information about the complaint with Congress despite apparent requirements under the law.

This is one of those vast and complex stories that consume Washington but frequently confuse ordinary Americans. The Trump White House appears to be counting on that confusion to offer a fog of claims and allegations to make it appear as if Biden had done something wrong.

On top of that, Trump is arguing that because Biden said he withheld aid from Ukraine in the name of battling corruption, there’s nothing wrong with Trump withholding aid from the same country in the name of fighting corruption (i.e., Biden was involved in supposedly corrupt dealings and should be investigated).

View the complete September 23 article by Glenn Kessler and Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.