When officials revealed last week that the anonymous Ukraine whistleblower had alleged ties to a 2020 Democratic candidate, two important questions were raised: Who was the candidate? And what was the nature of their relationship? We now can answer the first: The candidate was likely former Vice President Joe Biden.
The connection makes sense when you connect the report to what we already know about the whistleblower: He or she likely had a position in the White House, given the proximity of his allegations. And as the New York Times reported in September, the whistleblower was likely an intelligence officer of some sort, given his familiarity with protocol. He or she might have even been detailed to the National Security Council at some point.
“From everything we know about the whistleblower and his work in the executive branch, then there is absolutely no doubt he would have been working with Biden when he was vice president,” a retired CIA officer told the Washington Examiner yesterday.
The nature of this relationship is still up in the air. But given the whistleblower’s knowledge of Ukraine — as demonstrated in the complaint — it’s probable this person accompanied Biden on at least one of his six visits to Ukraine, as the Washington Examiner noted.
A close, past connection to Biden could have been a motivating factor in the whistleblower’s decision to come forward. And though this relationship doesn’t discredit the content of the whistleblower’s complaint, it does reveal that perhaps the whistleblower had a stake in this game after all.
Or perhaps the relationship was innocuous, as Glenn Carle, a former CIA officer who blew the whistle on former President George W. Bush’s administration, told the Washington Examiner.
“The truth is that the whistleblower would have worked with Biden not in some partisan political sense but as a member of the government,” he said.
It could be that the whistleblower’s complaint was purely professional and not personal. But if the House is going to base its entire impeachment inquiry on this complaint, it had better be airtight. A blatant conflict of interest could disrupt the entire process, and Democrats owe it to the American people to make sure the person whose testimony they have relied on is free of bias.
Congress has the right and the responsibility to look into the nature of Biden’s past ties to the whistleblower. As it’s suggested before, the House could hold a closed-door hearing, off-site, and away from the public eye to protect the whistleblower’s anonymity. But it should at least do something to address these concerns before it moves to remove the sitting president. These are serious allegations against both the president and the whistleblower, and they should be treated as such.
But if the Democrats ignore these allegations and move forward anyway, Biden won’t be the only one with some explaining to do.
