A top campaign staffer for former Vice President Joe Biden said he does not regret allowing his son to join the board of a Ukrainian gas company, saying that the press questioning his work is exactly what President Trump wants.
Kate Bedingfield, the deputy campaign manager and communications director for Biden's campaign, was asked by CNN if Biden regrets not telling Hunter he does not need the poor optics of his arrangement.
"No, because he didn’t do anything wrong. And, you know, the White House said in 2014 that there was no issue with Hunter having that job," Bedingfield said.
"But, you know, and I think that asking this question is exactly, Alisyn, what Donald Trump wants, right? There’s no evidence, as you stipulated at the top, which is important, there’s no evidence that he did anything wrong, and yet he still hopes that you guys will ask questions like that, that you will try to insinuate that there was an optical issue, that there was some kind of, you know, that there’s some kind of issue there that wasn’t there." she continued. "This is exactly the playbook that he ran in 2016. We’re not going to let him do it this time."
When Biden had stern words for a Fox News reporter when he asked him about the issue, Bedingfield encouraged reporters to instead, "ASK. THE. RIGHT. QUESTION."
ASK. THE. RIGHT. QUESTION. pic.twitter.com/h4iGsiHVhk
— Kate Bedingfield (@KBeds) September 21, 2019
Trump and his allies maintain there was conflict of interest since Hunter joined the board of Burisma Holdings in 2014, while his father was vice president, and was paid $50,000 per month to attend board meetings and energy forums. They also accuse Biden of trying to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired when he had an open case against Burisma Holdings. Many news outlets had reported there is no proof of that charge.
Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Biden family while also discussing military aid has supercharged Democrats call for impeachment, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi endorsing opening an inquiry into impeachment last week.