Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice said the attacks on the United States and its democracy are coming from White House.
Rice, who served in former President Barack Obama's administration, was asked on "CBS This Morning" if former Vice President Joe Biden mishandled the situation of allowing his son, Hunter, to sit on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
"Not in my opinion. Joe Biden was doing what he was asked to do by the president of the United States, consistent with serving our policy interests," Rice said on Friday.
"Our policy interests that we were — were shared with the European Union and the IMF was to root out corruption. And this prosecutor that he was pushing on all of our behalf to have removed was a corrupt prosecutor who was supposed to go after corruption," she continued.
Rice said Trump trying to have Ukraine investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the Bidens is different because Trump was asking "for a favor that benefits him personally and politically," while Biden was acting in the interest of the United States.
The phone call Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he mentioned the Bidens and military aid, is now at the center of the impeachment inquiry from the House Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs Committees.
"The reality we face, Tony, and what worries me so much, it gets back to your original point, Gayle, is for the first time that I can remember, our democracy is under assault. Our country is in effect under attack. That attack is coming now from within. It’s coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Rice added. "And for all the security threats I saw as National Security Adviser, all the challenges we faced, I never thought I’d see that.”