Joe Biden has never been shy about using his family as a campaign asset. But escalation of the scandal surrounding work by the former vice president’s son Hunter Biden with a Ukrainian gas company might once again turn into the liability that many Democrats have long feared.
Jobs held by Hunter Biden, 49, have complicated the political life of his father going back at least to 2008, when the then-Delaware senator was chosen as running mate for Democratic presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama. Campaign officials were forced to address questions over Hunter Biden having been hired by credit card company MBNA for consulting work, earning him a $100,000 annual retainer. While with MBNA, he helped pass legislation making it more difficult for individuals to declare bankruptcy.
That history, coupled with the ongoing Ukraine controversy, has some congressional Democrats concerned over hurting the presidential bid of his father, 76.
“It’s going to go into all those issues now,” Democratic Rep. Jeff Van Drew told the Washington Examiner Wednesday, amid ongoing revelations over the whistleblower complaint against President Trump. “I just don’t know if that’s what we want for America.”
Hunter Biden’s personal life — he left his wife to date his brother’s widow — and his extensive drug use has long been a touchy subject for both his father and Democratic party operatives.
During Joe Biden’s vice-presidential vetting process, his oldest son’s financial affairs caused tension with the Obama camp.”Keep my family out of this,” Biden told Obama officials at the time when they brought up his son.
During his second term as vice president, Obama administration officials sounded the alarm that Hunter Biden was using his father’s access to world leaders for his own personal interests. Hunter Biden had scheduled a meeting with his father and Jonathan Li, a Chinese businessman who was in a separate business arrangement with the vice-presidential son, on a diplomatic trip to Beijing, China.
Now, in the midst of his third White House run, Biden must face his only surviving son’s baggage while his family still reeling from the loss of Beau Biden, who died in 2015 from brain cancer. Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma has raised questions. He joined the company in 2014 for his alleged legal expertise and made as much as $50,000 a month for his services.
Two years later, Biden pressured the Ukranian president to fire a prosecutor who had been accused of corruption or risk losing U.S. aid. Biden’s demands were eventually granted.
Since a whistleblower came forward accusing Trump of threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless its government investigated Hunter Biden, the Biden campaign has reacted aggressively, including backing impeachment should the president not cooperate with congressional investigations.
The response represents a delicate balance for Biden, who risks elevating a potential scandal while also showing Democratic voters he’s the candidate who the incumbent fears the most. “My guess is that if this [scandal] hurts Biden, it hurts Trump more,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “It allows him to play the sympathetic father.”
As Biden finds his campaign in the center of another White House controversy, there’s growing evidence that Democratic voters prefer a fresh face. A number of polls this week show Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren either barely trailing or surpassing him, with a Quinnipiac survey released Wednesday morning showing her at 27% support with Biden at 25%.
— Kerry Picket contributed to this story.
