Bernie Sanders Needs to ‘See the Evidence’ Before Deciding Whether Democrats Should Smear Biden

Independent Vermont Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he wants to “see the evidence” before commenting on whether Democrats should smear former Vice President Joe Biden with the baseless attacks that Donald Trump has been promoting.

During a press event in Davenport, Iowa Tuesday, Sanders delivered a statement in support of the impeachment inquiry that was then just hours from being announced. That inquiry was prompted by Trump’s attempts to extort the government of Ukraine into ginning up dirt on the former VP and his son, Hunter Biden.

But when Sanders was asked if Democratic candidates should make the smear itself into a campaign issue, Sanders said he needs to “see the evidence” before commenting:

When asked if he believed Democrats should avoid wading into questions about Hunter Biden — like when he told voters during a 2016 debate that he’d rather talk about the issues facing Americans than Hillary Clinton’s “damn emails” — Sanders said only he didn’t know enough about the subject to comment.

“I know I’m a little bit old-fashioned. I like to see the evidence before I talk about things. I read the papers and I read what I read,” said Sanders. “But I don’t know that I know enough at this point to make any definitive statement.”

In case he missed it, here’s the evidence: there is none. But don’t take my word for it. Trump recently pushed the conspiracy theory using a video that heavily featured New York Times reporter Ken Vogel insisting that he would make this story into a “liability” for Biden, but Vogel himself has now repeatedly reported that there is “no evidence” to support the smear.

Biden rival Senator Kamala Harris, on the other hand, called the smear out for what it is. “I believe that that this is a political tactic being waged by Donald Trump, because he obviously perceives a threat. That is a political threat, and I have no support for it whatsoever,” Harris said when asked if Trump’s claims should be investigated.

Harris is also being criticized for saying she would “leave it to the voters to decide” if Biden has “baggage” due to this issue, but in her full answer, she said voters would decide by “paying attention to the issues and people’s records.”

Biden himself addressed the smears again in remarks on Tuesday, saying of Trump’s attacks that “even though every reputable publication has looked at the charge that has been made against me and found them baseless, untrue, and without merit, that’s not about to stop him.”

The jury’s apparently still out on whether it will stop Bernie Sanders.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.