US Vice President Mike Pence lashed out at predecessor Joe Biden and the US mainstream media for their criticism of Trump over Ukraine – specifically, the practice of withholding funding in exchange for political favors.
Trump has been under fire recently for reportedly delaying $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, demanding first that an unspecified action from Ukraine’s newly-elected president Zelensky be performed.
"The ironic thing is that everything that our critics in the media are leveling at the president from this phone call, and leveling at our administration, everything that Democrats on Capitol Hill are running off and describing -- Vice President Joe Biden bragged about -- which was a quid-pro-quo -- withholding American aid in exchange for a specific action," Pence claimed.
In the meantime, Biden on camera in 2016 bragged about withholding $1 billion in military aid, demanding that then-president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, fire the prosecutor general.
"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion,'" Biden recounted at a Council on Foreign Relations event, according to Fox. "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***h, he got fired," Biden continued. "And, they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
Reacting to Biden’s verbal barbs, Trump posted a video montage of Biden criticizing Trump and bragging about his diplomatic achievements.
This is the real corruption that the Fake News Media refuses to even acknowledge! pic.twitter.com/FCvUtWA33j
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2019
Trump blasted US media groups on Monday, accusing them of applying double standards to their coverage of US politics.
"Look at the double standards, you people ought to be ashamed of yourselves…You got a lot of crooked journalists, you’re crooked as hell,” Trump declared on Monday.
