Biden expects to be focus of Trump impeachment defense
As President Donald Trump’s legal team prepares to continue arguments in the impeachment trial Monday, Joe Biden said he expects to be a focus of their presentation.
But the former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful insisted he’s not concerned about any political fallout.
“Look, they’ve been going full bore at me all the time and all it’s gone is gone up,” Biden told CNN on Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa. “Look, you guys know it’s a bunch of malarkey.”
Speaking briefly to reporters after an event with the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Biden said he does not feel he will need to respond to the defense team as it resumes its presentation this week.
Biden said “I’m expecting they will” make him a focus, adding, “That’s why (Trump’s) in trouble.”
Trump’s legal team began its defense of the President against the two articles of impeachment on Saturday. But his lawyers made no mention of Biden as they laid out their case despite the President’s focus on the former vice president over the past several months.
Democrats allege Trump abused his office by directing a pressure campaign for Ukraine to announce an investigation into Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for $400 million in US security aid and a White House meeting. Trump, Democrats say, then stonewalled congressional investigators to cover up the misconduct.
Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his Republican allies have used Hunter Biden’s foreign business ties to characterize the Bidens as corrupt, despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden in Ukraine. Trump and congressional Republicans criticized House Democrats for not allowing Hunter Biden to be called as a witness during the House impeachment hearings, and some Senate Republicans have floated the idea of calling Hunter as a witness in the Senate trial.
As the impeachment trial unfolds in Washington, Biden will campaign in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses on February 3.
“Every time that his guys mention my name tomorrow, I get one more vote out here,” he told reporters.
