Biden comes out swinging as Democratic debate focuses on Trump impeachment

Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his son’s involvement with a Ukrainian energy company, saying “my son did nothing wrong,” as the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate zeroed in on impeachment proceedings against President Trump on Tuesday in Ohio.

Trump has been attacking the former vice president, claiming Biden threatened to freeze $1 billion in aid to Ukraine if the country didn’t get rid of its top prosecutor who was allegedly looking into the company in which his son Hunter Biden served as a highly paid board member. Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives after a whistleblower report claimed he pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate the Bidens.

“My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong,” Biden said Tuesday. “I carried out the policy of the United States government in rooting out corruption in Ukraine and that’s what we should be focusing on.”

Biden hit back at Trump, claiming the president on “three occasions has invited foreign governments” — Russia, Ukraine and China — to meddle in United States elections, calling it “outrageous.”

“He doesn’t want me to be the candidate. He’s going after me because he knows that if I get the nomination, I will beat him like a drum,” Biden said, repeating an oft-used campaign line in the face of the president’s attacks.

Impeachment took center stage at the top of the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate, with the Oval Office hopefuls rallying to attack Trump as corrupt while backing the ongoing congressional inquiry.

The 12 Democrats on stage — who all support the impeachment proceedings — collectively came out strong against the president.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Democrats have no choice but to proceed with the inquiry.

“This is a president who is enriching himself and using the Oval Office to do it,” Sanders said, saying that Trump being “prepared to hold back national security money to one of our allies in order to get dirt on a presidential candidate is beyond comprehensible.”

Sanders made his return to the campaign trail after suffering a heart attack in Nevada earlier this month. Sanders has been off the campaign trail recuperating in Vermont, using his stent surgery to promote his “Medicare for All” plan in a direct-to-camera video message last week and releasing a policy proposal Monday on ending corporate greed and corruption.

Warren and Sanders were hit early on Medicare for All. Warren has widely escaped criticism from her Democratic rivals during her ascent in the polls and in fundraising over the calendar year.

Tuesday marks California billionaire Tom Steyer’s first debate following a late entrance into the race. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii rejoined the stage after being left out of the third debate in September. Other candidates appearing Tuesday include: South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Lower-polling candidates will have another chance to make their mark — or risk being left off the next debate stage in November and running out of steam in their presidential bids.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2po30wF