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It was Mr. Trump who took the conversation into political territory, once again ripping into Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter, accusing them of corruption, and then veering into familiar territory to excoriate his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, for deleting emails.

Biden responds: “It is a tragedy” that Trump “put personal politics above his sacred oath.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Mr. Zelensky should be in touch with Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, an attempt “to manufacture a smear” against him, “using a malicious conspiracy theory.”

“We also learned that he planned to involve the United States Department of Justice in this scheme — a direct attack on the core independence of that department, an independence essential to the rule of law,” he said.

But he tried deftly to make it not about him — as he made it about him.

“Congress must pursue the facts and quickly take prompt action to hold Donald Trump accountable. In the meantime, I will continue to focus my campaign not on how Donald Trump abused his power to come after my family, but on how he has turned his back on America’s families.”

Other Democratic presidential candidates condemned Trump again, saying the call is a “smoking gun” for impeachment, with at least two candidates using the phrase: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and the former housing secretary Julián Castro.

Pelosi: “The president has tried to make lawlessness a virtue.”

Ms. Pelosi did not hold back in condemning Mr. Trump’s behavior as she indicated in a statement that the release of the phone call reconstruction would only fuel the impeachment inquiry:

“The release of the notes of the call by the White House confirms that the President engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity of our elections, the dignity of the office he holds and our national security. The President has tried to make lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad.

“I respect the responsibility of the President to engage with foreign leaders as part of his job. It is not part of his job to use taxpayer money to shake down other countries for the benefit of his campaign. Either the President does not know the weight of his words or he does not care about ethics or his constitutional responsibilities.”

She also made it clear that Mr. Barr would now be part of the multipronged House investigation that could yield articles of impeachment. “The transcript and the Justice Department’s acting in a rogue fashion in being complicit in the President’s lawlessness confirm the need for an impeachment inquiry,” she wrote. “Clearly, the Congress must act.”

Shortly after her remarks, the chairmen of the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees issued a joint statement:

“The record of the call released by the White House confirms our worst fears: that the President abused his office by directly and repeatedly asking a foreign country to investigate his political rival and open investigations meant to help the President politically. Not once, not twice, but more than half a dozen times during one telephone call. This was a shakedown. The President of the United States asked for a ‘favor’ after the Ukrainian President expressed his country’s need for weapons to defend against Russian aggression.”