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Trump urged to probe Biden after tape reveals he held back info on Ukraine: 'How long will you put up with it?'

Ukrainian politician Andriy Derkach revealed a call between Biden and Ukraine's former President Poroshenko

A leaked phone call between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko revealed them discussing what information Biden could share with the incoming Trump administration, with the former vice president insisting to the foreign leader he wanted to remain "deeply engaged" in their ties even as a private citizen.

Unveiled by Ukrainian politician Andriy Derkach on Tuesday, September 15, the call reportedly took place on November 16, 2016 — one week after Donald Trump won the presidential election. The outgoing vice president and then-president of Ukraine are heard in the exchange, discussing the topic of visas, “something we have tried to sell to the Ukrainian people,” Poroshenko said. “And if President [Obama] can also support us, not only with the means, but with visa-free, that is something we have tried to sell to the Ukrainian people," he continued. "And still hoping that you can come, maybe on the 21st of November, on our anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity and that would be very big delivery.”

Biden told Poroshenko he wouldn't be visiting on the date in question and that a future visit was dependent on how Ukraine responded to the incoming Trump administration. “With regard to my coming on the 21st, as I told you I can never come... the 21st. I am going to try to come immediately after, in early December. But here’s where I am now, part of my answer to that depends on what was your conversation with our president-elect?” the former vice president asked the Ukrainian president. Biden then claimed the Trump campaign did not believe they were going to win the 2016 election and this meant their transition team was "not up to the job," the New York Post reported.

“One of the things I’ve been doing is spending — they are not making the — I’m not being critical, but they, the new administration, the incoming administration has been very, very slow on getting ready for transition," Biden said. "Quite frankly, like most of America, they didn’t think they were going to win the election, so they did not have a fulsome transition team. As a matter of fact, they changed their transition team."

"Transition is a very, very delicate and precise dance, it goes on from administration to administration over the last 100 years and it requires the exchange of classified information and the like,” the former vice president continued, criticizing his successors for their handling of the transition.

Biden then admitted to withholding information regarding Ukraine from the Trump transition team. “And the people they put forward to be part of the transition have to be cleared to do that, just as we had to be cleared after the Bush administration, etc," Biden continued. "They have not done that, they’re trying to catch up and do it now since they fired the guy who headed up the transition just last week. The reason I bother to tell you that is I have been somewhat limited on what I am able to tell their team about Ukraine,” he admitted.

“The truth of the matter is that the incoming administration doesn’t know a great deal about the situation. So I am meeting with the vice president-elect, who is the only one who has any foreign policy experience,” he added, referring to Vice President Mike Pence.

Biden handled policy on Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and China during the Obama administration. He was tasked with the same considering his 30 years of experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Following the latest leak, however, social media lashed out against the Democratic presidential hopeful. Some even called for a probe into the relationship between Biden and Poroshenko.

"'I don’t plan on going away, I mean as a private citizen I plan on staying deeply engaged in the endeavor that you have begun and that we have begun... At least that’s my objective. That’s my objective' — said the guy who told Comey to use Logan Act on Flynn," lawyer Hans Mahncke tweeted. "Ukrainian whistle-blower Andriy Derkach published the revealing wiretaps of the conversations between Biden & Poroshenko. He did not "dig up dirt", he unveiled it," a second user wrote.

"A big fan of the Logan Act, Joe oughta be all up for an investigation into his attempts to influence a foreign government as a private citizen," another added. "Dear Mr. President, When you will investigate Biden's corruption in Ukraine. They with Poroshenko not only Ukraine, but the American people. How long will you put up with it?" a third chimed in.