President Trump insists there's nothing wrong with asking China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, but Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) isn't buying it.
Romney chastised Trump in a tweet Friday for having publicly suggested Thursday that China should investigate Biden, despite the fact that he's currently facing an impeachment inquiry after pushing for Ukraine to do. After facing criticism, Trump defended his remarks Friday, tweeting that "as President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION" and that "this has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens."
But in a Twitter response Friday, Romney said it "strains credulity to suggest that" Trump doing so "is anything other than politically motivated," going on to directly rebuke Trump for his "brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden," which he calls "wrong and appalling."
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This isn't the first time Romney has criticized Trump amid the Ukraine scandal, having previously called the transcript of the president's conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "deeply troubling." Still, CNN's Abby Phillip notes this is "the farthest Romney has gone in this whole saga."
As usual, though, Romney's direct criticism isn't widespread among Republicans, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently told The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey that while he "wouldn't go down that road" of asking countries to investigate political opponents, he understands that Trump "feels like everyone is coming after him all the time and he hasn't done anything wrong."
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