Donald Trump added still more fuel to a raging impeachment fire this morning when he appeared to offer up a defense of tying the release of Ukrainian military aid to a demand that the Ukrainian government launch an investigation into one of his potential 2020 campaign opponents. Speaking to reporters before his UN appearance, Trump asserted: “It’s very important to talk about corruption. If you don’t talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt?”
Trump previously told reporters that he explicitly spoke to the Ukrainian president about Trump-alleged "corruption" by presidential challenger Joe Biden in a conversation with the Ukrainian president, saying the conversation "was largely the fact that we don't want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine." Trump's new statement this morning would thus appear to more directly link his decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine to the request to investigate his election opponent.
Trump was dogged by questions about his Ukrainian actions throughout the day, later claiming to reporters that he "did not make a statement that you have to do this or I'm not going to give you aid. I wouldn't do that." While Trump is a notorious liar who would have no qualms about misrepresenting his conversations, he would also not have had to make such a threat explicit. Trump was withholding desperately needed military aid while telling the Ukrainian president what "corruption" was foremost on his mind; the demand he was making of the Ukrainian leader was self-evident.