Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden has made his first public call for the impeachment of United States President, Donald Trump as he told a rally that the US leader has “already convicted himself”.
He said Mr Trump must be removed from office for abusing his powers to help his own re-election.
Mr Biden made the remarks as he launched into a blistering 25-minute campaign speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
He said Mr Trump is “shooting holes in the Constitution” by asking foreign powers to interfere in the 2020 election and then refusing to co-operate with a resulting House of Representatives impeachment inquiry.
“This is a president who has decided this nation doesn’t have the tools, the power, the political will to punish bad behaviour,” Mr Biden said. “He’s not just testing us. He’s laughing at us.”
Mr Trump quickly shot back in a tweet that it was “so pathetic” to see Mr Biden calling for his impeachment. The president maintained that he had done nothing wrong.
Democrats in the House of Representatives have begun impeachment proceedings against him based on a rough transcript of the call.
In a July 25 phone call to Ukraine’s leader, Mr Trump asked for “a favour” of investigating Mr Biden and his son Hunter. Mr Trump maintains his unfounded assertions that Mr Biden, as vice president, used his office to protect his son from corruption investigations in Ukraine.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Biden again called those claims “lies” and said Mr Trump was peddling them because he fears facing Mr Biden in a general election.
