According to the president, people “must hear it”.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he intends to read out on a television a transcript of a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, which was the reason for the impeachment proceedings against the American leader.
“At some point, I’m going to read out – perhaps this will be a “chat by the fireplace” live on television – a transcript of the conversation, because people should hear it”, – Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
In September, a major scandal erupted in the United States over the July telephone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, which eventually led to the announcement by the House of Representatives, controlled by Democratic political opponents, of the impeachment proceedings against the head of the White House. According to Democratic lawmakers, Trump tried to convince Zelensky to investigate the activities of the son of former US Vice President Joseph Biden Hunter in Ukraine in exchange for financial and military assistance to Kiev.
Biden is now one of Trump’s most likely rivals in the upcoming November 2020 presidential election. Therefore, according to the Democrats, the head of the US administration, putting pressure on Zelensky, sought to enlist the support of Kiev in efforts to discredit Biden in order to facilitate his re-election for a second term. Zelensky denied the fact of pressure from the American leader.
On September 25, the White House unveiled a transcript of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. The US Department of Justice, which simultaneously performs the functions of the Attorney General, did not find any violations of national law in the contents of the telephone conversation, nor did it see any grounds for further investigation.
“Conversations by the Fireplace” is a generalized name for radio speeches by 32nd US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945), which were very popular among Americans.