Trump's latest Biden rant 'makes it harder for supporters to defend him': Conservative writer

Washington Examiner writer Philip Klein has penned a scathing new column taking President Donald Trump to task for his latest rant in which he encouraged both Ukraine and China to launch investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden.

At the start of his column, Klein argues that Republicans' efforts to make the current impeachment inquiry an indictment of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) were actually bearing fruit -- until Trump pulled the rug out from under them by calling on two foreign powers to investigate his political rival.

"Trump cannot help himself from making statements that keep his own conduct front and center," he writes. On Thursday morning, Trump stood in front of the White House and not only said that Ukraine should investigate the Bidens but also China... Trump's defenders want to focus on Schiff and the media and the deep state because it's really difficult to argue that Trump's underlying conduct has been a positive thing. He sees no problem with asking foreign countries to investigate a domestic political rival, even if, in the case of China, it's an adversary."

Klein hedges on whether Trump's behavior in this case warrants impeachment, but he concludes that no amount of spinning or deflection by Trump supporters will actually make it appropriate.

"Trump's defenders can point fingers at the coordinated efforts of leftist institutions to take down Trump all they want," he writes. "But just because people are out to get him doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong."

Read the whole column here.