Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) accused President Donald Trump of enriching himself while serving in the White House on Tuesday, but he refused to address similar claims made about former Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter.
Sanders was asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper at the fourth Democrat presidential primary debate in Ohio if he believed Trump’s conduct in office warranted impeachment. The senator responded by claiming there was “no choice” but to impeach the president because of alleged violations of the emoluments clause.
Despite the bold stance, Sanders opted against extending his attack on “corruption” in Washington, D.C. to the former vice president, whose son is at the center of the newly launched impeachment inquiry. At the center of the inquiry is a conversation the president had with the Ukrainian government suggesting they probe how the younger Biden secured an appointment to the board of directors of Burisma Holdings. The younger Biden was appointed to the oil and gas giant’s board, a position which paid as much as $83,000 per month, in 2014, around the same time his father was made the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine.
Even though the former vice president’s campaign has defended such dealings, Hunter Biden, himself, expressed regret for his “poor judgement” during an interview with ABC News over the weekend.
“In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part. Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it, I know … [I] did nothing wrong at all,” the younger Biden said. “However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is, its a swamp in many ways? Yeah.”