OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden issued a defiant response to President Trump’s allegations of corruption by telling him: “You’re not going to destroy me.”
Breitbart reports Biden continued, saying: “And you’re not going to destroy my family. I don’t care how much money you spend or how dirty the attacks get.”
“Let me make something clear to Trump and his hatchet men and the special interests funding his attacks against me — I’m not going anywhere,” he added.
Breitbart reports:
The tagline — with its unfortunate double-meaning — was reported by the Washington Post, which obtained excerpts of the speech in advance, merely hours after several new polls suggested that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had surged past Biden into first place in the race for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
A Monmouth Poll of early primary states released Wednesday found Warren (28%) ahead of Biden (25%) by 3% — barely within the poll’s 3.1% margin of error. A new YouGov/Economist poll found Warren (28%) ahead of Biden (22%) by 6%.
Moreover, the breaking news that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 78, had been admitted to hospital for emergency heart surgery also drew attention to Biden’s age (76) and his own history of health problems.
Still, Biden wanted Trump — and Democrats — to know that he would fight on, in response to Trump’s charges that he and his son, Hunter, were “stone-cold crooked.”
Biden and Trump have been embroiled in a controversy involving Biden’s son and a position he received on a Ukrainian energy board when his father was vice president. Biden’s son, Hunter, reportedly made $50,000 per month in the position despite not having any experience in the energy sector or any Ukrainian business connections.
Upon receiving the position, a Ukrainian federal prosecutor launched an inquiry in the hiring to look for any potential wrongdoing or any preferential treatment.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden scolded the investigation and announced he would withhold $1 billion in American aid from Ukraine until they fired the prosecutor—which they did.
Several years later, President Trump believes the act constituted a criminal abuse of Biden’s political office and discussed the matter with Ukrainian President in a July 25 phone call.
Democratic lawmakers allege this conversation—which they were made aware of when an unidentified whistleblower within the intelligence community shared its contents to the media and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff’s office—was an illegal use of Trump’s position as president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in her chamber claim the alleged abuse constitutes an impeachable offense and subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry.
