Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at the Teamsters Local 249 hall during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Monday, April 29, 2019.
Justin Merriman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden said Congress will have "no alternative" but pursuing impeachment if President Donald Trump or his associates block investigations based on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report.
In an interview with ABC News' "Good Morning America" broadcast Tuesday, Biden — who launched his presidential campaign last week — said that Mueller's 448-page report on Russian election interference included several areas of inquiry that were "left undone."
"There are elements in the report, in the second phase of the report, about seven or eight things that are left undone – was not within [Mueller's] purview to investigate, he thought," the former vice president said.
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"The Congress is attempting to take that up" for investigation as they should be doing, Biden said. "And if in fact [Trump or his associates] block the investigation, they have no alternative but to go to the only other constitutional resort they have," which Biden said "is impeachment."
Biden has taken aim squarely at Trump since announcing his candidacy, and now has established his own line in the sand on impeachment. But he said in the interview with ABC that "my job in the meantime is to make sure he's not back as president of the United States of America."
The White House did not immediately provide a comment on Biden's remarks.
The fight over the Mueller report
The findings of special counsel's 22-month probe into Russia's meddling, potential collusion with the Trump campaign and possible obstruction of justice by Trump himself were finally revealed earlier in April with the release of a redacted version of the lengthy report.
Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to show that Trump or people connected to him coordinated with the Kremlin. He made no determination on whether Trump obstructed justice, but noted 10 instances of potential obstruction by the president. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that an obstruction-of-justice offense was not warranted, based on the report.
Trump and Republicans have claimed that the outcome of the investigation offers a total exoneration of the president. Democrats, however, have seized on many of the details in the report, raising alarms about Trump's conduct and vowing to continue their own probes of Russian interference and other matters related to the president, including his finances.
Trump has made clear he intends to put up a fight. Last week, Trump and his business sued Democratic House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings to block a subpoena seeking information from an accounting firm about Trump's finances. And Trump and his family filed another federal lawsuit Monday against Deutsche Bank and Capitol One to block more subpoenas from House Democrats.
Meanwhile, the White House has refused to let some members of the Trump administration comply with requests from House Democrats to testify. And Barr himself, scheduled to testify before House Democrats on Thursday, has reportedly threatened not to show up because of disputes with lawmakers over the format of the event. If he does skip the hearing, Democrats may subpoena him to testify.
The question of whether to pursue impeachment proceedings against Trump has caused a split between House Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a number of Democrats running for president in 2020. Presidential contenders Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have both supported pursuing impeachment, among others.
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