(CN) – Citing President Donald Trump, 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden unveiled a massive anticorruption plan Monday morning that includes constraints on election spending, White House interference into Justice Department matters and foreign lobbying.
The plan is clearly a rebuke to Trump, who is mired in an impeachment investigation and the target of rare admonishments from his own party over the abandonment of Kurdish allies along the border of Syria and Turkey.
“Donald Trump has presided over the most corrupt administration in modern history,” Biden said in a statement Monday morning.
The Biden campaign further hits Trump for spending federal dollars so government officials can stay at Trump properties located throughout the world, using the Justice Department to protect the president and his allies rather than attend to the rule of law and allow lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association access to the White House and an ability to dictate policy.
Biden’s plan calls for the introduction of a constitutional amendment that bans private dollars from federal elections. The proposal courts the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has long held that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision distorts democracy by allowing those with larger financial reserves to dictate electoral outcomes.
The proposal is the only one not directly aimed at Trump, who spent about half of what Hillary Clinton did during the 2016 election and overcame significant fundraising deficits during the Republican primary.
But Biden’s proposal to establish a Commission on Federal Ethics is squarely aimed at the incumbent, whom the former vice president accused of violating government ethics and routinely engaging in abuse of power.
He also calls for a ban on foreign lobbying and a requirement that presidential candidates must release their last ten years of tax returns. Trump notoriously refused to release his tax returns and has filed lawsuits against various entities trying to obtain them for investigative purposes.
Trump has routinely hit back at Biden’s claims of corruption, accusing the former vice president of improperly influencing investigations in Ukraine where his son Hunter served on the board of an oil and gas company called Burisma.
On Monday, Hunter Biden announced his resignation from an equity fund that has Chinese-backed funders and pledged he would not affiliate with any foreign-owned entities should Biden be elected president.
Biden has ratcheted up his attacks on Trump recently, accusing him of venality and backing his impeachment for the first time last week.
“Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation and committed impeachable acts,” Biden said last week.
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