Chris White on September 27, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speculated Friday morning that Russia played a significant role in President Donald Trump’s decision to ask Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump’s decision to ask Ukraine to investigate Biden’s actions in the Eastern European country is an example of the president’s use of a foreign country to intervene in American elections, Pelosi told MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. The California lawmaker also speculated that Russia was behind the move.
She also acknowledged that it’s fine for Trump to keep some conversations with foreign leaders secret. “Let me just say that I fully appreciate the need for a president of the United States to have conversations with leaders of other countries and that some of that may want to be held close to the vest as part of his job,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi went on to add several caveats, telling Scarborough that it is not part of the president’s job to “shake down” another world leader using taxpayer dollars. Her comments come after Trump admitted Monday to asking Ukraine to investigate Biden for allegedly pressuring Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was looking into his son’s business ties.
The California Democrat then went on to suggest maybe Russia was behind the ruse.
“And they know how wrong it is … By the way, I think Russia has a hand in this, by the way,” Pelosi said. “But we saw what the Russian disruption of our election last time, their interference, 100% confidence of the intelligence community, high confidence in the intelligence community that the Russians disrupted our election. That was wrong.”
Pelosi met with the House Democratic caucus Tuesday before officially announcing the impeachment inquiry regarding a whistleblower complaint laying out Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This coming several months after Pelosi maintained that the Democratic Party was far from an impeachment push.
