This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Donald Trump has called for China to investigate his leading political rival, in defiance of impeachment proceedings in Congress, where he stands accused of abusing his office to put similar pressure on Ukraine.

Special envoy thought he could handle Trump and help Ukraine. He was wrong Read more

At the same time as calling for an investigation of the former vice-president and frontrunner in the Democratic primary, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter, Trump noted that the US was in trade talks with China and “if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power”.

Asked if he had already asked China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to start an investigation, the president said: “I haven’t, but it’s certainly something we can start thinking about.”

Later on Thursday, CNN reported Trump had brought up Biden in a June phone call with Xi, mentioning the former vice-president’s political prospects, as well as those of Senator Elizabeth Warren. Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on the unfolding Hong Kong protests as long as trade talks between the US and China progressed, CNN said. The White House record of the June call was reportedly stored in the top restricted database that also contained the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Trump spoke on Thursday as his former special envoy on Ukraine, Kurt Volker, was giving evidence to House committees about what he knew about parallel contacts with Kyiv conducted by Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and aimed exclusively at obtaining compromising material on the Bidens.

According to ABC News, among the materials Volker provided to Congress was a text message from the acting US ambassador to Kyiv, Bill Taylor, saying: “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

Another ambassador, Gordon Sondland, a Trump mega-donor and the current envoy to the European Union, disagreed, saying the president had made it “crystal clear no quid pro quo of any kind”, and then texted to suggest they take the discussion off-line.

Hunter Biden was on the board of an energy company in the eastern European country, where Joe Biden, as vice-president, pressed for the dismissal of the chief prosecutor. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by father or son.

What happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine Donald Trump

Trump has insisted he did nothing wrong in his dealings with the Ukrainian president, and has even accused an intelligence whistleblower of treason for providing evidence that the president used the power of his office – the withholding of military aid and a summit meeting – for his own political ends.

However, Trump appeared to do just that in front of the cameras on the White House lawn on Thursday, when he openly called for Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens.

“If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens,” Trump said. “Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.”

On a 2013 trip to China, the then vice-president took his son with him on his official plane. The younger Biden was in the process of setting up a private equity fund, BHR, with money coming in part from Chinese investors.

Hunter Biden later acknowledged having met a prospective partner during the trip, though a spokesperson told NBC News it was a social encounter.

There is no evidence the Bidens did anything illegal.

On Thursday, Trump also noted that Chinese negotiators are due in Washington for the latest round of high-stakes trade talks, and threatened negative consequences if Chinese leaders did not make concessions.

“The Chinese are coming in next week,” he said. “We’re going to have a meeting with them, we’ll see, but we’re doing very well. I have a lot of options on China. But if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power.”

Beijing has shown itself to be sensitive to Trump family dynamics.

In 2018, Ivanka Trump’s fashion and homewares business received initial Chinese approval for trademark applications days before her father announced a reversal in policy, dropping a US ban against ZTE, a Chinese telecoms firm that admitted breaking US sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

Trump’s China comments seemed likely to broaden the impeachment inquiry, which is already at fever pitch in Congress.

He feels he can do anything with impunity Adam Schiff

Earlier on Thursday, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to speaker Nancy Pelosi, demanding she suspend the inquiry until more “transparent and equitable rules and procedures” are established.

The letter read: “Unfortunately, you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed – including whether key historical precedents or basic standards of due process will be observed.”

But the inquiry continued and journalists lined a spiral staircase that descended to a secure room in the bowels of the Capitol where Volker was testifying in closed session before members of three committees.

The session ran well into the afternoon. Democrats emerging from the room refused to comment. Mike Turner, a Republican from Ohio, issued a statement targeted at the Democratic chairman of the intelligence committee, Adam Schiff.

Volker’s testimony has not “advanced Schiff’s impeachment agenda”, Turner said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adam Schiff speaks to reporters as Kurt Volker, Donald Trump’s former envoy to Ukraine, is interviewed in nearby offices. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Emerging from the hearing after several hours, Schiff declined to comment on Volker’s testimony. But he called Trump’s remarks on the White House lawn “repugnant” and a “fundamental breach of the president’s oath of office”.

Donald Trump's bizarre press day was a full-blown impeachment tantrum Read more

“Once again,” he said, “having the president of the United States suggesting, urging a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”

On a visit to Arizona, Vice-President Mike Pence defended Trump’s call with Zelenskiy – even as his aides sought to distance him from the rapidly unfolding scandal. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Pence’s top national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, listened in on the call from the Situation Room.

Pence told reporters: “As more facts come out of this, as people take time to read the transcript of the president’s call and reflect on these facts, they’ll come to realise this is more of the same of what we’ve seen from Democrats in the last two and a half years.”

Echoing Trump, he insisted that the real wrongdoing was on the part of Biden.

“I think the American people have a right to know if the vice-president of the United States and his family profited off of his position,” he said.