Senate

Romney: Trump requesting Biden investigation from China, Ukraine ‘wrong and appalling’

by Jordain Carney - 10/04/19 12:25 PM ET

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday broke sharply with President Trump’s call for China and Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, calling it “wrong and appalling.”

“When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,” Romney said in a statement, which he also tweeted out.

By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) October 4, 2019

The day before, Trump floated to reporters outside of the White House that the two countries should probe Biden, the Democratic 2020 front-runner, and his son, Hunter Biden, even as House Democrats work on an impeachment inquiry centered on allegations that Trump sought to withhold aid to Ukraine as an effort to get Kiev to launch a probe.{mosads}

“China should start an investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said in front of cameras on the South Lawn.

The president added that he had not explicitly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to open such a probe, but that it’s “certainly something we can start thinking about.”

Most Republicans, who are currently scattered across the country for a two-week recess, have remained silent on Trump publicly suggesting that foreign governments investigate a potential 2020 rival.

But Romney is part of a small group of Republicans who have spoken out this week, though none have backed the impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), in a statement on Thursday night, said “Americans don’t look to Chinese commies for the truth,” while also knocking House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for running a “partisan clown show in the House.”

Retiring GOP Rep. Will Hurd (Texas) told CNN’s “New Day” that he thought Trump’s comments were “terrible.”

Romney’s comments on Trump asking for the Chinese government to investigate the Bidens come as he also voiced concerns about the phone call where Trump asked the Ukrainian government to help his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, look into the issue. There’s been no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.

“I did read the transcript. It remains troubling in the extreme. It’s deeply troubling,” Romney told reporters last week. “Clearly what we’ve seen from the transcript itself is deeply troubling.”

Romney became one of the first GOP senators to raise concerns about the phone call. The public questioning earned him mockery from the president, who tweeted out a video comparing Romney’s failed 2012 presidential bid with his own victory four years later.