Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday that President Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raises questions about the president’s intentions that need to be answered.
Collins, Sen. Angus King and Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree, 1st District, and Jared Golden, 2nd District, were asked to comment on the memorandum – not a verbatim account – that was released Wednesday of Trump’s July 25 conversation with Zelensky in which he asks the Ukrainian leader to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
“It raises some key questions, and I look forward to the Intelligence Committee sessions (Thursday) with both the acting Director of National Intelligence and the Inspector General,” Collins told reporters in Washington. Collins and King serve on the Intelligence Committee.
Joseph Maguire, the acting director of National Intelligence, is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a private session to answer questions about a whistleblower complaint about the phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky.
Pingree said the call memorandum provided a sufficient basis to proceed with an impeachment inquiry.
“The call summary released by the White House provides indisputable evidence that President Trump abused his office by pressuring a foreign government to help him win a political campaign,” Pingree said in a statement. “This information confirms why Congress has to launch a formal impeachment inquiry and why we must see the full whistleblower complaint.”
King, an independent, did not issue a statement, saying through a spokesman that he is looking forward to the Intelligence Committee’s closed-door hearing Thursday.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Golden said the congressman stands by the statement he issued Tuesday, in which Golden said it is imperative that Congress gets to see the full complaint filed by the whistleblower.
“The law is clear: the acting director of National Intelligence must forward the whistleblower’s complaint to both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees,” Golden said in his statement. “This isn’t negotiable. It’s the law.”
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