Biden Says He Won’t Appear at Impeachment: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden said he would not appear voluntarily at impeachment proceedings, telling reporters on Wednesday that Republicans are trying to distract from the actions of President Donald Trump.

“The president is the one who has committed impeachable crimes, and I'm not going to let him divert from that,” he said after an event in Iowa Falls on his bus tour of Iowa. “I'm not going to let anyone divert from that.”

Trump and congressional Republicans have called for Biden and his son Hunter to testify in the impeachment proceedings. Democrats say Trump committed impeachable offenses when he sought to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in order to gain a competitive edge in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden Says He'd Consider Harris for VP (3:21 p.m.)

Joe Biden said Wednesday he would consider choosing Kamala Harris as his vice president if he wins the Democratic nomination, and suggested several other possible jobs for her.

“Of course I would,” he told reporters as he boarded his tour bus after an event in Ames, Iowa.

“Senator Harris has the capacity to be anything she wants to be,” he said a day after Harris ended her presidential bid. “She is solid. She can be a president one day herself. She could be the vice president. She could go on to be a Supreme Court Justice. She could be attorney general. I mean she has enormous capability.”

Biden also said he spoke to Harris on Tuesday.

In the first Democratic debate, Harris lit into Biden over his past positions on school busing, a moment that was a temporary breakthrough for Harris.

On Wednesday, when asked about that exchange, Biden said, “I'm not good at keeping hard feelings.” -- Tyler Pager

COMING UP

Biden is on an eight-day, 18-county bus tour of Iowa through Saturday.

Elizabeth Warren speaks at a DNC IWillVote Gala in Boston on Thursday.

Presidential candidates including Biden, Bernie Sanders and Buttigieg will participate in a forum hosted by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday.

Warren, Sanders and Biden participate in town hall meetings hosted by UNITE HERE Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas Dec. 9-11.

(Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Ames, Iowa at tpager1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Max Berley

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.