The problem for Joe Biden is that outright criminality is not necessary for these stories to stink. The appearance of conflict of interest is bad enough, and there is plenty of it. Mr. Biden knew his son worked for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, and knew the company faced scrutiny. He nonetheless in 2016 had the Ukrainian prosecutor who oversaw that investigation fired. In 2013 the vice president took Hunter on a government plane to China, where Hunter met with business associates, a moment that even a former senior Obama White House aide admitted in a July New Yorker profile “invited questions about whether [Hunter] ‘was leveraging access.’ ”
And the questions keep mounting. We now, for instance, have Joe Biden’s claim that “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” Which appears to be in direct conflict with that New Yorker piece, in which Hunter acknowledges he did discuss Burisma with his father. The Ukraine issue is now firmly attached to the Biden campaign, and it isn’t going away.
His problem is that this story line cuts to the heart of his candidacy. Mr. Biden has run relentlessly on the argument that he is the one candidate who can beat Mr. Trump. But he has now become the one who can’t prosecute the issue Democrats are moving on for impeachment. How could Mr. Biden broach Ukraine on a debate stage, knowing Mr. Trump would take that subject and pound away? Every Democratic voter who is passionate about victory in 2020 is already rethinking the Biden candidacy.
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