A defiant Joe Biden has repeated his vow to beat Donald Trump ‘like a drum’ in the 2020 Election.
The former Vice President – who has not yet won the Democratic Party’s nomination and has been slipping in the polls – made the claim in a fiery op-ed published Sunday in The Washington Post.
The 76-year-old accused his political foe of ‘abusing the power of the presidency’ by publicly calling upon Ukraine and China to investigate his son Hunter’s business dealings in their countries.
He also claimed that Trump has ‘corrupted the agencies of his administration — including the State Department, the National Security Council staff, the Justice Department and the office of the vice president’ in his pursuit to do so.
‘He slanders anyone he sees as a threat,’ Biden stated, before adding: ‘That is why is he is frantically pushing flat-out lies, debunked conspiracy theories and smears against me and my family, no doubt hoping to undermine my candidacy for the presidency.’
However, the 2020 contender defiantly declared he would not let Trump intimidate him, directly addressing the Commander-in-Chief, stating: ‘Please know that I’m not going anywhere. You won’t destroy me, and you won’t destroy my family.’
Joe Biden penned an op-ed in The Washington Post on Sunday, claiming President Trump is ‘frantically pushing flat-out lies’ about his family
Biden vowed to maintain his focus on the issues affecting American families as he continues his Democratic campaign.
He claimed that he would keep attention on his goals of ‘getting weapons of war off the streets and ending the epidemic of gun violence; building on Obamacare so that every American has access to quality, affordable health care; and taking on the climate emergency imperiling the planet’.
While Biden may want to stick to those talking points, it appears others are still interested in probing him about his family’s foreign business dealings.
Biden accused his political foe of ‘abusing the power of the presidency’ by publicly calling upon Ukraine and China to investigate his son, Hunter’s, business dealings in their countries. Joe and Hunter are pictured together in 2009
On Friday, the politician lashed out at a reporter in response to a question about his potential conflicts of interest in the Ukraine.
At a Service Employees International Union forum in Los Angeles, Biden was asked about his work overseeing foreign policy for Ukraine as vice president while his son Hunter served on the board of a major Ukrainian company.
‘It’s not a conflict of interest. There’s been no indication of any conflict of interest, in Ukraine or anywhere else. Period,’ Biden snapped.
Asked how his son’s cushy $50,000-a-month gig didn’t at least create the appearance of a conflict of interest, Biden rejoined: ‘I’m not going to respond to that. Focus on this man. What he’s doing that no president has ever done. No president.’
Biden pauses while speaking at the SEIU forum on Friday. After the event he snapped at a reporter who asked about his potential conflicts of interest
Biden has previously demanded that reporters ‘ask the right questions’ and accused Trump of trying to ‘hijack’ the campaign with unfounded assertions that Biden and his son had corrupt dealings in Ukrainian business and politics.
In late September in Iowa, the former VP scolded a Fox News reporter who asked about his family’s ties to Ukraine. ‘You should be asking him the question: why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader?’ he said.
‘This appears to be an overwhelming abuse of power. To get on the phone with a foreign leader who is looking for help from the United States and ask about me and imply things … this is outrageous. You have never seen anything like this from any president.’
Biden renewed his attack on the president with a tweet on Saturday, writing: ‘Donald Trump is the definition of corruption.’
In late September in Iowa, the former VP scolded a Fox News reporter who asked about his family’s ties to Ukraine
Devon Archer, far left, golfing in the Hamptons with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far right, in 2014. Archer served on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings with Hunter
On Friday, Trump maintained that he had an ‘obligation’ to request assistance from foreign governments to investigate alleged corruption and asks he made of China and Ukraine were not politically motivated in any way.
Trump insisted that the foreign investigations he’s demanding are about Hunter Biden ‘pillaging these countries and hurting us,’ not his father’s bid to become the next President of the United States.
The scandal around Trump’s phone call to the Ukrainian president, asking him to investigate possible Biden family corruption there, has the potential to drag on Biden’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, in addition to driving the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump.
In third quarter fundraising reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Biden placed fourth for money raised from donors.
Senator Bernie Sanders leads the field, so far, pulling in $25.3 million, with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s $24.6 million close behind. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, came in third with $19.1 million.
From there, the drop off is steep, with Biden pulling in $15.2 million.
The latest national polling shows Biden with just a 2.2-point lead on Warren, down from a large double-digit lead on his rivals just months ago.
In third quarter fundraising reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Biden placed fourth for money raised from donors
Biden said that the media should keep the focus on President Trump (seen above returning to the White House after playing golf in his Virginia club on Saturday)