Trump uses UN setting to attack critics in rambling speech: ‘It’s a joke. Impeachment for that?’

Congress examining details of original whistleblower complaint

A weary looking Donald Trump has used the setting of the United Nations to attack his critics during a rambling speech in which he had insisted he had done nothing that merited impeachment.

As members of Congress started examining the contents of a whistleblower complaint about the president’s July conversation with the leader of Ukraine in which he asked him to launch an investigation into Joe Biden, Mr Trump used a succession of press opportunities to claim Democrats intentionally announced impeachment proceedings this week in order to create embarrassment.

At times sounding sombre and downcast, the president claimed he was “working hard” for the benefit of the country.

“And the Democrats did this hoax during the United Nations week. It was perfect,” Mr Trump said.

“It’s a joke. Impeachment for that?

“Because this way it takes away from the tremendous achievements that we’re taking care of doing that we’re involved in. In New York City at the United Nations.”

The president claimed the launching of impeachment investigations into his actions – formally announced by House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday – had been done because Democrats knew they could not beat him in 2020. He used this opportunity to attack Hillary Clinton’s strategy in 2016, when she failed to campaign in several northern states the president was able to bag on his way to the White House.

“With Nancy and Chuck, and all of these people focusing on the witch hunt, because they can’t beat us at the ballot,” he added. “They’re not going to win the presidential — we have great polls.”

Mr Trump spoke after the White House released a redacted document it said detailed his conversation in the summer with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky. Mr Trump claimed the document showed a “beautiful” conversation, and his supporters pointed out it contained no direct quid pro quo in the sense of the president offering his Ukrainian counterpart something in exchange for investigating Mr Biden.

However, Democrats said the document – which was a partial memorandum rather than a full transcript – showed the president had clearly asked Mr Zelensky to help, and suggested he liaise with attorney general William Barr and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, about an anti-corruption probe that would include the current Democratic frontrunner.

“Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that,” Mr Trump is reported to have told Mr Zelensky. “I will tell Rudy and attorney general Barr to call.”

In the days before the call, Mr Trump had ordered advisors to freeze $400m in military aid for Ukraine, triggering speculation he was holding out the money as leverage. Mr Trump has denied that charge and the aid package was not mentioned in the partial memo released by the White House.

At a meeting with Mr Zelensky on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Trump talked over him to address a reporter’s question to his Ukrainian leader.

“I don’t want to be involved to democratic open elections of US state,” Mr Zelensky said. “We had I think good phone call, it was normal, we spoke about many things….I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed me.”

Mr Trump then interrrupted, to say: “In other words, no pressure. Because, you know what, there was no pressure. And you know there was no pressure.”

With more than 200 Democrats in the House of Representatives supporting the impeachment investigation, some urged Ms Pelosi to keep the inquiry to Ukraine and not expand into other issues Congress had already been investigating.

“We need to be disciplined about how we communicate,” said congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a state Mr Trump won in 2016. “The minute we’re talking about the intricacies of process is the minute that we are losing people.”

Also on Wednesday, some members of Congress said they had received the whistleblower complaint. Republican senator Richard Burr, chair of the Senate intelligence committee, who received a copy, declined to comment on what the complaint contained.

The whistleblower had filed the complaint to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog, who deemed the allegations “urgent” and “credible”. However, Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence, did not forward the complaint to Congress, which politicians have called a violation of the law.

Mr Maguire is due to give testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday. He denied a report in the Washington Post claiming he threatened to quit if he was not permitted by the White House to speak openly when he appeared.

He said: “At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role. I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now.”

Additional reporting by agencies