Joe Biden Dodges Question About Donald Trump Impeachment, Refuses To Say Whether He Would Vote To Convict
During a forum hosted by the Service Employees International Union on Friday, former vice president Joe Biden delivered what ABC News describes as “some of his strongest rebukes to date” of President Donald Trump’s allegations about his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Biden said that Trump is “the definition of corruption,” strongly pushing back against his allegations and arguing that there is not a “shred of evidence” to suggest that Hunter financially benefited from his father being Barack Obama’s vice president.
“There’s been no indication of any conflict of interest from Ukraine or anywhere else. Period,” he said, urging reporters present at the event to focus on Trump, instead of focusing on his family.
The former vice president strongly denounced Trump’s actions, stating that he is “worried” about what Trump will do come election year, describing the commander-in-chief as “unhinged.”
Nevertheless, despite strong condemnations of Trump’s behavior, it remains unclear whether Biden is fully on board with impeachment. Members of the media asked the former vice president whether he would vote to convict Trump if he were still a member of the United States Senate, but he did not provide an answer.
As ABC News notes, Biden, who spent 30 years in the Senate, dodged the question.
“I am not going to speculate what I would do in the Senate,” he said, pivoting to slamming Trump without saying if he would vote for his conviction or not.
“This is a president trying to get three of our most — two of our most — serious competitors, and not allies, to decide this election, decide who he runs against,” he said.
Unlike other Democrats running for president, Biden has been hesitant to explicitly call for impeachment. As The Hill reported, even in the face of Trump’s continuing attacks on his family, the former vice president said that Congress should “initiate impeachment” only if Trump continues to stonewall investigations.
WATCH: @JoeBiden says there was no conflict of interest for his role as head of US policy in Ukraine & his son's job in Ukraine. He tells me, "Focus on this man and what he is doing." @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/NcJe0qsjlH
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) October 4, 2019
According to Trump, both Biden and his son are corrupt and need to be investigated. A complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower suggests that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, threatening to cut military aid unless the country’s government does as he says.
According to the whistleblower, Trump pressured Ukraine in order to damage Biden’s 2020 campaign — the transcript of the president’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to corroborate their allegations.
The president’s actions prompted the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, but even if the House votes to impeach the president, the GOP-controlled Senate is unlikely to convict him.
