Trump-Ukraine call being released sets 'damaging' precedent for future presidents, Republican lawmaker says

The transcript from President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky showed no quid pro quo as Democrats claim, but its release sets a bad precedent they are ignoring, according to a Republican lawmaker.

The privacy of discussions between world leaders is key to successful negotiations, while the release of such transcripts could hurt the ability for presidents to conduct foreign policy, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., said Tuesday on "Your World."

"President Zelinsky himself said that he did not think it was a quid pro quo," he said.

"I do have an issue though that a private conversation between two world leaders was released to the public. Think about how damaging that is any time a world leader speaks to our president now whether it be Donald Trump or future presidents in the back of that world leader's mind is going to be: 'Will this transcript be released that's really damaging to our ability to negotiate and work with foreign leaders?' And that concerns me."

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Regarding the contents of the transcript itself, Reschenthaler said there wasn't anything incriminating to Trump, however, they did raise questions about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

"I read the transcript and the only thing that really gives me pause and when I have questions about is why was Joe Biden's son getting paid $50,000 a month for working for an oil and gas company when he knew nothing about oil and gas," Reschenthaler, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said.

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"To me, that's very suspicious. I think that that needs to be looked at and that's really what I have questions over."

Earlier this month, Trump suggested that despite his claims, Joe Biden seemingly discussed Ukraine matters with his son Hunter -- who served on the board of the Ukrainian firm Burisma Holdings. The White House has sought to point to possible corruption by the Bidens, amid the House Democrats' formal impeachment inquiry against the president.

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That being said, Reschenthaler told host Neil Cavuto, the Democrats' push to impeach Trump based on the transcript and its contents will ultimately backfire -- thanks to a public that is wary of impeachment proceedings.

"Now they say they want to [impeach] quickly so it doesn't backfire on them," he said.

"They're not playing politics but they are terrified the American people are going to be upset with the far-left Democrats pushing impeachment when nothing comes of this. Think about how much time we're wasting we could be working on USMC. We could be working on reducing the cost of prescription drugs."

"We could be working on a transportation infrastructure package but instead we're wasting our time trying to impeach this president is going nowhere," the southwestern Pennsylvania lawmaker added.

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