'Outrageous as it gets': Foreign Relations senator rips into Trump for 'corrupting the use of his power'

On Friday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Menendez (D-NJ) excoriated President Donald Trump and his political associates for the Ukraine scandal — and demanded full accountability.

"Let me get quick reaction to breaking news," said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "Not one, not two, three House committees subpoenaed the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, for documents involving Ukraine. You're calling him to testify as well. In your eyes, does he bear responsibility for Rudy Giuliani's interference in State Department affairs?"

"Well, if Rudy Giuliani is telling the truth, then he definitely bears responsibility," said Menendez. "Who is Rudy Giuliani as it relates to the State Department or any official position of the United States government? He has none to my knowledge. He is not an ambassador, not a special envoy. He has no specific title. He has not been employed by the federal government. And in that regard, he is the president's private attorney obviously playing the role of henchman in attempt to dig up dirt on political opponents. This is outrageous."

"This is why I asked the inspector general of the State Department to investigate, as to what the State Department did, what it knew, what the secretary knew, how was Rudy Giuliani facilitated, who was he given access to, what role was he allowed to play for the same documents, many documents the house is asking for, which the State Department has not been willing to come forward with."

So we have the president of the United States perverting, corrupting the use of his power to get a foreign government involved once again in our election and using the resources of the federal government, hundreds of millions of dollars of Congress, in a bipartisan way, voted to give Ukraine, to defend against Russia being held up in an inordinate period of time, over two months, that preceded the call, all in an effort to get dirt on one of the president's political opponents. This is outrageous as it gets, even for this presidency. It goes to the core of our democracy and our constitution."

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