Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pushed back on President Trump’s broadsides against his son Hunter Biden in a new interview, saying it is “crass” to go after the children of one’s political rivals.
The former vice president was asked in an interview on the progressive political podcast “Pod Save America” released Saturday why he hasn’t highlighted concerns that the Trump family is profiting off the presidency, a charge Trump has made against Biden’s son.
“It’s a specific decision, and I just think it’s crass,” Biden said.
“I’m running against Donald Trump, not his children, and the American people want to hear about their families, not about Trump’s family or my family, although I’m very proud of my family,” he said. “It’s just not how I was raised. It’s that basic. It’s Donald Trump.”
Critics have long raised concerns about Trump’s family profiting off his presidency, with Democrats maintaining that his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner holding positions as senior White House advisers presents conflicts of interest with their businesses.
Ivanka Trump has brushed off such criticisms, saying last year that her father ran for office after making his money in real estate.
“His wealth, and our wealth, collectively and independently, was created prior to government service and prior to anyone in our lives having run for elected office,” she told The Associated Press then.
“Most people do create their wealth post service. We created ours prior,” she added.
Biden has gone after the couple’s government roles before, saying in a “60 Minutes” interview last year that it was “improper” for the president to have his daughter and son-in-law in White House positions.
“If I get elected president, my children are not going to have offices in the White House. My children are not going to sit in on Cabinet meetings,” Biden said in October 2019.
Kushner fired back at the time, saying his efforts in the Trump administration were geared toward “cleaning up the messes that Vice President Biden left behind.”
The Democratic nominee’s latest pushback comes as the president launches a fusillade of attacks against Hunter Biden over his business dealings abroad.
Trump recently touted a controversial New York Post article suggesting Hunter Biden looked to arrange a meeting between a Ukrainian businessman and his father when Joe Biden was vice president. The claims were based on details on a laptop obtained by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney.
The president also invited Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski to attend Thursday’s debate. Bobulinski, who claims he at one point managed the Bidens’ foreign business portfolio, delivered a statement in front of cameras this week saying Joe Biden’s claim that he never discussed business dealings with his son was false.
Biden’s campaign on Thursday preemptively dismissed debate attacks from Trump as “amplifying Russian disinformation.”
“He’s the vice president of the United States and his son, his brother and his other brother are getting rich. They’re like a vacuum cleaner,” Trump said of Biden at the debate.
Biden has maintained neither he nor any of his family members did anything wrong, responding Thursday that “nothing was unethical.”