Tuesday night was Biden’s opportunity to stop the bleeding. That didn’t really happen.
First, Biden whiffed an answer that he should have been prepared for. Early on, moderator Anderson Cooper asked Biden about why it was okay for his son, Hunter, to be on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while Biden was vice president, influencing policy in Ukraine.
Biden responded, “My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States in rooting out corruption in Ukraine. That’s what we should be focusing on.”
The answer missed the point.
While there’s no evidence that Biden’s son did anything
illegal, there’s still something a bit unsettling — even corrupt — about Biden’s son likely benefiting from his family name and maybe even his father’s policymaking.
As
Matt Yglesias put it, “That this kind of sleazy stuff has been going on for years doesn’t make Trump’s abuses of power okay, and it certainly doesn’t make his stepped-up and more-egregious forms of corruption okay.
But Democrats are kidding themselves if they don’t think it helps explain why Trump’s corruption is tolerated.”
After this moment, you could be forgiven for forgetting that Biden was even on the stage.