BOISE, Idaho — After allegations that President Trump pressured Ukraine's president to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Sen. Jim Risch is speaking out on the conversation and said that the situation is "dizzying."
"This conversation that the president had with the head of Ukraine is a typical conversation," Risch said. "I've been in lots and lots of these - I do them every day with foreign ministers or heads of state."
On Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry of Trump, saying "no one is above the law."
Calls for an impeachment inquiry intensified following reports that Trump may have sought a foreign government's help in his reelection bid.
The controversy came to light when a whistleblower filed a complaint, which Risch has seen for himself as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but could not reveal any details.
"The whistleblower complaint is about the transcript that is now out in the public and out in the open for everyone," he said. "People should read that transcript for themselves and make up their own minds to see if there's anything wrong here."
Risch implied that the President did not coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into his political opponent, but rather, was asking for Americans.
"What happened is pretty simple, the former President Barack Obama tapped Joe Biden to review the corruption, report on it... to protect the U.S. funds that were there," Risch said. "Within weeks after that, the gas company - the heart of corruption in the Ukraine, hired Joe Biden's son for the tune of $50,000 a month, plus his law firm for another $100,000 a month.
"I think [President Trump] is right," he added. "Americans do wanna know about that."
Risch said it was only a matter of time before Pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry.
"I'm surprised it took this long," he said. "I thought it would take 30 to 60 days before they started impeachment proceedings against him, but that's what's going on and that's what will go on for some time now."
House Democrats are weighing the next steps in their inquiry. Some lawmakers want to limit the impeachment probe to Trump's push for Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden.
But Pelosi said in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that if the inquiry generates articles of impeachment, they would cover more than just Ukraine. However, there's also discussion of imposing some limits.
