Besides the transcript of the phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian president Zelensky, the second most important transcript is of Joe Biden's comments at a January 2018 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations. (See below.)

Here's why:

It's been interesting to hear Republican politicians, Trump-supporters, a few objective journalists, conservative political pundits, and even President Trump himself continue to argue that Joe Biden was the person responsible for threatening a quid pro quo to a group of Ukrainian government leaders involving a billion-dollar loan guarantee from the USA and a prosecutor investigating corruption at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. All of these people ealso argue that Joe, along with his son Hunter, should be called as witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial to expose the truth of their corruption in the Ukraine.

What has been glaringly overlooked in this whole situation is that Joe Biden was technically not the person responsible for the idea of a quid pro quo in that situation, because Biden was merely the official U.S. representative delivering the quid pro quo ultimatum to the Ukrainian leaders. In his own words, Joe Biden clearly establishes this fact.

Referencing the transcript below, Biden implies that because Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk had not yet taken "action against [fired] the state prosecutor," Ukraine was not going to get the billion dollars from the USA. At this point in his story, Biden says the Ukrainian leaders challenged him, saying, "You have no authority. You're not the president." Biden said his response to their challenge was, "Call him." That's the irrefutable statement that implicates President Obama in the quid pro quo.

After indicating that he was acting on a clear directive from President Obama, Biden spelled out what can only be characterized as a threatening and time-sensitive quid pro quo. Biden told the Ukrainian leaders, "I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money." Biden then ended his comments about this incident, saying, "Well, son of a b----. He [the prosecutor] got fired."

Based on Joe Biden's comments, it would seem there is a big question that only President Obama can answer.

Obama needs to be asked if he directed Biden to withhold the billion dollars from Ukraine if the Burisma prosecutor was not fired.

If Obama says he did not direct Biden to threaten a quid pro quo, then not only is Biden a liar, but he has directly implicated himself in a corrupt scheme to both protect and enrich his son Hunter in his bogus job with Burisma. He also clearly misrepresented himself by usurping the authority of President Obama in dealing with a foreign leader.

Also, if Obama did not direct Biden to threaten a quid pro quo, why hasn't he come forward to expose the truth and clear his name?

If Obama admits that he directed Biden to threaten the quid pro quo, then Obama directly implicates himself in the same corrupt scheme to both protect and enrich Hunter Biden. More importantly, if Obama did direct Biden, as Biden says he did, he committed the exact same act President Trump is being accused of doing — and is being impeached for by the Democrats.

In any case, questioning Obama under oath will prove once and for all if President Trump was right to inquire about Biden's corruption in Ukraine on his phone call with the president of Ukraine.

Now, for the record, it's not "Quid pro Joe"; it's "Quid pro O."

Joe Biden, 23 January 2018 — appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations:

And that is I'm desperately concerned about the backsliding on the part of Kiev in terms of corruption. They made — I mean, I'll give you one concrete example. I was — not I, but it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team, our leaders to — convincing that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't. So they said they had — they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I'm not going to — or, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not the president. The president said — I said, call him. I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars. I said, you're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a b----. (Laughter.) He got fired.

Image: Ari Levinson via Wikimedia Commons.