Trump defends Ukraine call, pushes back on Biden

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"I said absolutely nothing wrong."

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday defended himself over reports that he pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"It was a perfect call. A perfect call. What wasn't perfect is the horrible thing that Joe Biden said and now he made a lie when he said he never spoke to his son."

The conflict stems from a July 25th phone call with recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to have Biden and his son Hunter investigated over the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was probing Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine.

Biden was vice president at the time. He's admitted threatening to withhold aid unless the prosecutor was fired.

The wider U.S. government and the European Union made the same demand, saying the prosecutor was failing to pursue major corruption cases.

Biden, on the campaign trail in Iowa Saturday, accused Trump of abusing his power and pushing a foreign government to punish a perceived political opponent.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, SAYING:

"Trump is using this because he knows I'll beat him like a drum and is using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me."

The phone call is at the center of a whistleblower complaint about Trump which the administration is keeping from Congress.

Three House panels are already investigating the call, and demanding the whistleblower's complaint... which Trump has described as a political hit job.