Biden campaign: Great to see ‘strong progressive voices’ stand up against Giuliani

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign praised “strong progressive voices” for standing up against Rudy Giuliani after President Trump’s personal attorney said he would travel to Ukraine to press for an investigation into the former vice president.

“It’s great to see all these strong progressive voices stand up to this attempt at a blatantly political smear which in and of itself reflects the urgent need for change and to restore the soul of the country,” a Biden campaign official told CNN.

{mosads}Giuliani first revealed his plans to travel to Ukraine in an interview with The New York Times last Thursday.

The president’s lawyer said he hoped to ask the country’s president-elect to pursue inquiries that could yield new information about the origin of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and Biden’s past influence in Ukraine.

Giuliani last week called for an investigation into Biden after the Times reported that Biden allegedly threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees in 2016 unless Ukraine removed a top prosecutor, who was later voted out.

Giuliani changed course and cancelled the visit on Friday, blaming Democrats for trying to “spin” the trip. 

Several Democrats, including 2020 candidates, had expressed concerns about Giuliani’s planned trip.

“I just think it is highly unethical for the President’s personal lawyer to go meet with officials from foreign government to see if they can influence somehow the upcoming presidential election,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said at a campaign stop in West Virginia, according to CNN. “We’ve had enough of that and Rudy Giuliani should just back off.”

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said Giuliani’s proposed trip to Ukraine was “so very troubling, very disappointing, and yet not a total surprise, given this president’s behavior and the pattern that he’d already set,” while in New Hampshire.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) also slammed the move, saying, “We’ve come to a very sorry state when it’s considered OK for an American politician, never mind an attorney for the president, to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics.”

In a tweet, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called the plan “immoral, unethical, unpatriotic and, now, standard procedure.”