If Democrats want the moral high ground in these impeachment hearings, they'll have to investigate Joe Biden

There is no doubting Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of directors of the Ukrainian energy firm, Bursima Holdings, was questionable. There is also no doubting the ongoing allegations of corruption against Biden and his father, former US Vice President Joe Biden, will continue to linger throughout the 2020 presidential race like an old-fashioned email scandal (yes, I’m making it a thing).

Democrats should proverbially throw Joe and Hunter Biden under the bus if they want to keep the focus of impeachment on Donald Trump and the 2020 elections on political reform. It’s a necessary evil.

This week’s first public impeachment hearing saw Republican lawyer, Steve Castor, execute a bizarre performance that made him the butt of internet jokes. At one point, Castor bizarrely asked whether Hunter Biden even “speaks Ukrainian”. Whether or not Castor sounded like he was grasping at straws, however, is immaterial: the fact that Hunter Biden, the son of a sitting vice president, was earning $50,000 a month for a do-nothing job he was devastatingly under-qualified for is what became obvious. When asked about Hunter Biden’s relationship with Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor and George Kent both stuttered as they eventually responded, “I don’t know.” The Democratic Party has to do better than that when they’re asked.

Steve Castor was also one of the leading Republican lawyers during the Benghazi inquiry. Although the inquiry did not uncover any wrongdoing, it effectively made the Hilary Clinton email scandal the single most important issue of the 2016 election. Lessons have to be learnt from that. Should impeachment fail or succeed, the concern of Hunter Biden's legitimacy will not fade. Whoever is standing as the GOP candidate for the 2020 elections will continue to accuse Joe Biden of nepotism and corruption, paving the way for Trump or Mike Pence or whoever to bask to lead chants of “clear the swamp” and “lock him up” at campaign rallies.

Democrats continue to ignore the ramblings of Trump against Joe Biden, in contrast to Republicans. Eric Trump, without any shame or irony, has weighed in on the Biden’s foreign business family ties. But in last month’s Democratic debate, not a single candidate dared to bring up their colleague’s connection to the Ukraine issue. Democrats will not be able to tip-toe around Joe Biden’s history forever. The only way to avoid discussing the topic further is to prevent him from receiving the Democratic nomination.

Trump may well have committed an impeachable offense — he may have committed a number of them, for all we know. This does not mean the question of Joe Biden’s corruption cannot exist concurrently. In fact, the only way to prevent Trump’s lawyers from pushing the focus away from impeachment and pointing the finger back at the former Senator is for Democrats to also question Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden, the son of a career politician, kick-started his career in muddied waters when he was suspiciously given a senior position at MBNA, a bank which was Joe Biden’s largest campaign donor. Hunter subsequently secured (with assistance) a job in the Clinton administration and eventually landed that lucrative, now-infamous seat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm. It’s hardly controversial to say that he heavily cashed in on the Biden name.

If Democrats truly believe they can should take the moral high ground while investigating Trump, they should also be pushing for Hunter and Joe Biden to be investigated for corruption, as well as Joe Biden’s brother, James. Those investigations might come to nothing, but being open to their existence will save Democrats a lot of time and effort in defending what looks like hypocrisy.

To avoid the problem continuing throughout the 2020 election, then perhaps Dems should consider nominating a more morally squeaky-clean candidate like, I don’t know, maybe Bernie Sanders. Just a thought.