President Donald Trump. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images White House Trump doesn't deny asking world leader about Biden The president's remarks are sure to escalate tensions between the White House and Congress over a whistleblower complaint.

President Donald Trump on Friday did not deny that he discussed former Vice President Joe Biden with a foreign leader during a conversation that is reportedly the subject of a hotly contested whistleblower complaint.

Instead, Trump claimed the allegations against him were lodged by a "partisan" intelligence official — despite acknowledging that he did not know the official's identity — and asserted that his exchanges with fellow heads of government are "always appropriate."


He told reporters in the Oval Office that "it doesn't matter what I discussed" with the foreign leader but went on to say that "somebody ought to look into Joe Biden's statement" regarding Ukraine.

The remarks from the president are sure to escalate tensions between the White House and Democratic members of Congress seeking access to the complaint, which acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has refused to turn over to lawmakers.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) threatened Thursday to pursue legal action against the administration to acquire the complaint following a classified briefing with the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, who had deemed the complaint credible and "urgent."

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) weighed in on the controversy Friday, accusing Trump and Maguire of "stonewalling," and warning in a statement that if the president "has done what has been alleged, then he is stepping into a dangerous minefield with serious repercussions for his Administration and our democracy."

Trump's latest comments are also likely to heighten speculation that the conversation reportedly detailed in the complaint referred to his July 25 phone call with recently elected Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump told reporters he did not know whether that call was the subject of the complaint, which The Washington Post reported Wednesday involves a “promise” Trump made to a foreign leader, and the Post and The New York Times reported Thursday also has to do with Ukraine. POLITICO has not independently verified the news outlets' reporting.

Three House committees earlier this month launched an investigation into Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani's dealings with Ukraine in relation to the president's re-election effort, and Giuliani revealed Thursday evening that he had asked Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, telling CNN: “Of course I did.”

Biden on Friday rejected Trump and Giuliani's accusations of wrongdoing but refused to weigh in any further.

“Not one single credible outlet has given any credibility to his assertions,” he told reporters while leaving an event in Cedar Rapids. “So I have no comment except that the president should start to be president.”



Trump previously denied making inappropriate comments to a foreign leader in a pair of tweets Friday morning. “The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again!” he wrote online.

“They think I may have had a ‘dicey’ conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a ‘highly partisan’ whistleblowers statement,” Trump continued . “Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward.”

The president concluded: “Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!”

Natasha Korecki contributed to this report.