House Democrats this week rejected allegations that President Biden improperly accepted money from a Ukrainian company during the Obama administration, but defended his administration for charging crimes against his likely 2024 challenger, the ‘former president Donald Trump.
“I’ve seen a lot of allegations against President Biden from the MAGA Republicans, but the truth is, they haven’t amounted to anything…I don’t think they have much credibility. But, look, they can knock themselves out.” Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said when asked if there should be an investigation into Biden’s allegations.
“All I want them to do is pay America’s bills, fund the government, and keep Ukraine in the fight. And if they want to waste time on worthless investigations, they will have to answer to the American people why they decided to do -ho. that.”
But he defended Biden’s Justice Department for indicting Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents and trying to obstruct officials’ attempts to retrieve them.
Nearly half the country supports Trump’s federal indictment, but believes politics was involved.
House Democrats spoke about allegations of wrongdoing surrounding Donald Trump and President Biden. (James Devaney/GC Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“I think the former president put the Justice Department in an impossible position. I think if they wanted to return the documents when it was clear, not only would he not get them back, but he would have others lie on his behalf. There was really no alternative.” , Swalwell said. “I think if you take the politics out, you see, you can’t have top secret documents that protect our troops outside of a protected area.”
Republicans in Congress have seized an FBI document they say shows Biden took $5 million from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that gave his son Hunter a seat on its board when he was vice president. A whistleblower has also come forward to congressional Republicans claiming audio recordings exist of a Burisma executive bribing Biden.
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The charges come as Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination to face Biden in 2024, pleaded not guilty in a Miami court while facing 37 criminal charges. A grand jury voted on the charges after a months-long investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland.
Rep. Eric Swalwell suggested an investigation into bribery allegations surrounding Biden would be ‘pointless’ (Fox News Digital/Elizabeth Elkind)
Both Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., had little to say about Biden’s allegations while sounding off about Trump.
“I have no reason to think any of this is true,” Torres said when asked if Biden’s bribery claims have merit and should be investigated. However, he supported Garland’s appointment of Smith as a “non-political decision”.
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“The attorney general followed an apolitical process of appointing a special prosecutor who made the decision to indict former President Trump independently of the president,” Torres said. “If former President Trump had never obstructed justice and simply turned over the documents upon request, there never would have been an indictment.”
Crow said he doesn’t “think there’s any merit” to Biden’s bribery allegations before moving on to Trump.
Deputy Ritchie Torres (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
“You know, there’s a lot of counterfactuals that people try to generate on their own. But the fact is, I’ve spent my adult life serving this country and advancing the national security of the United States,” Crow, a former U.S. Guard ‘army, he said. “And I was completely appalled when I saw these pictures of boxes of documents sitting in Donald Trump’s bathroom. You know, I had to spend my life getting security clearances, being very careful about them.
“Now, I’m on the Intel committee. I understand the risk that our intelligence officers, our servicemen and women, face every day if information is leaked,” he added. “And the very cavalier way that President Trump handled this, and even admitted on the record and on tapes that he wasn’t supposed to be showing things to certain people that hadn’t been cleared up. It’s really scary for me.”
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He also noted that Trump had been indicted by a jury of Americans.
“That’s how it works in America. It’s not a political process, and we just have to let it play out,” Crow said.
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
