Graham in SC defends call for investigation into Joe Biden and his son’s Ukraine ties
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday defended calling for an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden’s role in pushing for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, saying questions remain about whether Biden’s position had anything to do with his son’s ties to a Ukrainian gas company.
During a media availability in Charleston, Graham also called a congressional impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump partisan and unfair. The inquiry has centered on whether Trump held up aid to Ukraine in exchange for a promise from the country to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian business ties.
While Hunter Biden was a director of a Ukraine gas company, then-Vice President Joe Biden had called for the firing of Ukraine’s prosecutor and threatened the withholding of aid to the country to force the ouster. According to media accounts of the story, now resurfacing as Biden vies to be Trump’s opponent in 2020, Biden’s position echoed calls from many leaders in western countries.
Trump and his allies say there might be more to Biden’s stance, saying that Burisma, the gas company Hunter Biden was a director for, was under investigation.
Graham, on Monday, said he’s not sure what his inquiry will find, but he sees it as fair, considering what House Democrats are pursuing in their impeachment inquiry.
“If Hunter Biden, who was a board member for Burisma, used his political influence to stop the investigation of the gas company in the Ukraine where he received $50,000 a month, what role did the vice president play if any?” Graham said, who offered no evidence the Bidens had done anything wrong and added that he hopes the inquiry finds nothing.
“Joe Biden is a good friend. But if we’re going to look at corruption in the Ukraine, we’re going to look at both sides.”
Graham said the same attention being paid to Trump should be paid to the Bidens and their work in Ukraine.
“Show me an investigation on par with what has happened with Trump. Has the State Department investigated what I think is an obvious conflict of interest?”
Graham said questions about the Bidens were not allowed to be asked in the Democrat-controlled House impeachment proceedings and should be asked in the Republican-controlled Senate. Graham said he wants transcripts of Joe Biden’s phone calls with Ukraine officials.
“I don’t know if anything wrong happened, I don’t know if it was illegal what Hunter Biden did,” Graham said. “I don’t know if there was any conflict of interest laws violated for the sitting vice president’s son to sit on this board, but someone needs to look at that.”
“You could have two things: You could have a corrupt prosecutor, you could have political influence being used to protect a company Hunter Biden was serving on,” Graham said. “I could promise you this, if this were (Republican Vice President) Mike Pence’s son you wouldn’t be saying Politifact has cleared him. You would be calling for an investigation, and when these questions were being asked in the House, Adam Schiff shut it down.”
Politifact, a Pulitzer Prize winning political fact-checking website, reviewed the claims against Biden and found that, while Biden’s son’s position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company created a conflict of interest for the vice president, Biden’s push to have the prosecutor fired “was the position of the wider U.S. government, as well as other international institutions.”
Graham also responded to Biden’s remarks last week that South Carolina’s senior senator would regret the investigation.
“I like Joe Biden,” Graham said. “All I can say is Joe didn’t pull any punches when he ran against (John) McCain,” who Biden was friends with, he said. ”That’s the way the system works. We’re not going to have two systems where you just look at the Republicans and you get a pass.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 11:32 AM.
