Speaking at a campaign rally in Nashua, New Hampshire, 76-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden called on 79-year-old President Donald Trump to be impeached “immediately,” now that Trump’s called into question he and his son Hunter’s past dealings in Ukraine. Biden can’t explain—or won’t explain—how his 50-year-old son Hunter landed a lucrative job on Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings board, earning him $50.000 a month with no experience in the energy business. Biden keeps calling Trump a liar but hasn’t explained how Hunter’s job in Ukraine earned him millions before before-and-after the Feb. 22, 2014 coup that ousted Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych. “Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed his nation and committed impeachable acts,” Biden said. “He should be impeached,” repeating the same talking points delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Sept. 24.
Biden’s immediate call for Trump’s impeachment comes at a time when there’s more scrutiny on his son Hunter and his involvement making the connections. Biden said we won’t let Trump “destroy his family,” calling the president a liar for raising Hunter’s past dealings in Ukraine and China. While traveling with his father in 2016 in China, Hunter walked away with millions, if not a billion, for a private equity fund. Joe doesn’t want to talk about that because it smacks of corruption, something he, the Democrat Party and the media reserve only for Trump. Biden said Trump ‘convicted himself,” asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into corruption with the Bidens. Trump’s emphasis was on Hunter who, last time anyone checked, is not running for public office. Pelosi agreed to impeachment based on Trump seeking to investigate Joe, a Democratic candidate.
No one in the Democrat Party, Biden included, has said what Trump has done that qualifies as a crime or impeachable offense. When Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations in 2016 that he pressured former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire his chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin for seeking to investigate Burisma Holdings, the press yawned, explaining it away. Biden told the Council, “son-of-a-bitch,” they did what he wanted, worried about a funding cut. Yet Joe now leaps to the conclusion that Trump did the same thing, when, in fact, the transcript said no such pressure was applied to Zelensky, July 25. Zelensky said Sept. 25 at the U.N. he was not “pushed” by Trump in his July 25 phone call. Yet Biden and the Democrat Party insist Trump engaged in a quid pro quo, withholding military aid for dirt on the Bidens. If Trump wanted dirt on Hunter Biden, he’s not off limits.
Trump responded promptly on Twitter to Biden’s call for Trump’s impeachment. “So pathetic to see Sleepy Joe Biden, who with his son, Hunter, and to the detriment of the American Taxpayer, has ripped off at least two countries for millions of dollars, calling for my impeachment—and I did nothing wrong,” Trump said. “Joe’s Failing Campaign gave him no other choice!” “He’s shooting holes in the Constitution, and we cannot let him get away with it,” Biden said, not saying exactly how Trump has violated the Constitution. To Biden, Trump exposed his son in what looks like a sweetheart deal worked out by his Vice President father. Without Joe as Vice President, it’s doubtful Hunter would have been invited onto the Burisma Holdings’ board or been given millions by China for a private equity fund. Biden said Trump messed with the wrong person. “He’s picked a fight with the wrong guy.”
Biden’s sudden change of heart backing impeachment stems from several news developments, including the whistleblower’s complaint, Trump’s public comments asking countries to investigate the Bidens and the White House “obstructing” congressional testimony. But when you listen carefully to Joe, things have gotten personal. “I’m not going to let him get away with it,” saying Trump “picked a fight with the wrong guy.” Well, which is it? Picking personal vendetta now or real legal grounds for pursuing impeachment. For the first time in Biden’s campaign since declaring April 25, he’s been passed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in aggregate polling with Warren at 26.6% and Biden 26,4%. When Biden announced April 25, he held a 23% lead on Warren, jumping to 41% May 10 or a 31% lead on Warren. Biden’s call for impeachment today sure looks political.
Since Biden’s known for a gaffe-prone campaign, Warren’s been gaining ground, primarily because he presents weakly compared to Warren in presidential debates. Calling for Trump’s impeachment, Biden wants to stop Trump from raising more questions about how he did business when Vice President. Warren seems to be picking up votes from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose recent heart attack has given voters second thoughts. Biden, meanwhile, has nothing to lose calling for Trump’s impeachment, despite not saying what Trump has done that’s impeachable. Certainly calling out his son Hunter for possible corruption can’t be impeachable because Hunter’s not running for public office. If Trump’s attacks are really so “baseless,” why doesn’t Joe say how Hunter got the lucrative deal in Ukraine? Trump continues to raise questions while Democrats talk only impeachment.
