Biden: Answering questions about Hunter would ‘take the eye off the culprit’

“There’s nothing asserted that he did anything that was illegal,” Biden said. “Here’s what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to — and I know you’re not intending to do this — play the game to take the eye off the culprit.”

Biden’s son joined the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma while Biden was vice president in the Obama administration and presided over diplomacy with Ukraine. Burisma paid Biden’s son at least $50,000 a month.

The vice president conceded that his son’s involvement in the company looked bad but that his son’s conduct was nothing similar to the conduct Trump is accused of engaging in with Ukraine.

“What may have looked bad but wasn’t anything wrong is totally different than whether a president has held up $400 million in aid for the Ukrainian military when Ukrainians are dying,” Biden said. “That is criminal.”

House Democrats are drafting articles of impeachment against Trump. Democrats allege that Trump attempted to withhold military aid to Ukraine in order to secure investigations into Biden and his son’s conduct.

The articles of impeachment may also include allegations that Trump attempted to collude with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller investigated the allegations for two years but did not substantiate them.

Also on Thursday, Biden got into a contentious exchange with an independent Iowa voter over his son’s business dealings in Burisma. The leading Democratic presidential candidate called the man a “damn liar” after he accused both Bidens of “selling access to the president.”

“That’s not true. And no one has ever said that,” Biden said.

Biden also appeared to insult the man’s weight, saying, “Look, fat,” before pausing to regroup his thoughts. He later denied he called the man fat, and his campaign put out a statement asserting that Biden said, “Look, facts,” before rephrasing.