Biden Braces for Rivals’ Attacks on Son at Democratic Debate

(Bloomberg) -- The Democratic candidates will meet for the fourth presidential debate on Tuesday after an extraordinary series of events that has dramatically altered the race since the last forum in September.

The debate on the campus of Otterbein University, outside Columbus, Ohio, is hosted by CNN and the New York Times, and will be broadcast on CNN at 8 p.m. Eastern time. For the three top-polling candidates -- and the man they hope to succeed -- it will be defined by a succession of firsts:

For former Vice President Joe Biden, it will be the first debate in which his Democratic rivals may risk criticizing him over his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine and China, which have been the target of unrelenting attacks from President Donald Trump. Biden has warned his rivals of risking party unity to do so, and attacking him on the debate stage has failed to score them points in the three previous debates.

For Elizabeth Warren, the forum will be the first opportunity to defend her statistical tie with Biden and perhaps rise into the lead, and the first chance to defend her status as the standard-bearer for the progressive wing of the party against Bernie Sanders.

For Sanders, it will be his first public appearance since a heart attack on Oct. 1 forced him off the campaign trail. He will either appear robust, or risk prolonging the questions about his fitness for the job of president.

And one not participating will be at virtual center stage. Tuesday’s contest is the first debate since since House Democrats began an impeachment inquiry of the president in connection with his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate the Bidens.

All of the candidates agree that Trump should face impeachment proceedings, though Biden was the last to get on board. They won’t miss an opportunity to hammer home that point on live television.

For many of the lower-polling contenders in the field of 12 on stage, the largest ever, the debate could be a last gasp for their campaigns.

Those candidates will all push to have a “moment” that gets media attention and helps them build support. They will also seek to do damage to another candidate who is chasing after the same voters.

For some, the goal will simply be to have a steady enough performance to qualify for November’s debate, for which the Democratic National Committee has set even more stringent polling and fundraising requirements than the ones that were in place for the September and October debates.

Biden initially avoided engaging with Trump about the unfounded allegations against him and his son, a reticence that threatened to undermine his claim that he would beat Trump “like a drum” in the general election. In recent weeks, though, he has been increasingly forceful.

Many of his opponents -- including Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke -- have suggested that work like Hunter Biden’s should not be allowed for the children of a president or vice president to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Some could take the same kinds of shots at Biden at the debate.

On Sunday, Hunter Biden announced that he would leave the board of a Chinese firm at the end of October and would forgo all foreign work if his father were elected president.

While it could be tempting to go after Biden, some candidates have found that that tactic can backfire. Julian Castro’s attempt last month to question Biden’s memory led one congressional endorser to flip -- from Castro to Biden.

Pete Buttigieg, however, plans to be more combative than in previous debates, especially with the progressive candidates like Warren and Sanders, two aides told Bloomberg News.

That fight is most likely to be sparked by their biggest fault line: health care. Sanders and Warren embrace a Medicare for All proposal that would establish a government-run system that would abolish private insurance, while most of the other candidates, including Buttigieg, favor adding a public option to the existing system that’s largely reliant on private insurance.

The debate will include all of the candidates who appeared at the September forum: Biden, Warren, Sanders, Harris, Booker, Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Castro, Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang.

There will also be one candidate who hasn’t appeared in the previous debates: billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who entered the race in August. Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who failed to qualify for September’s debate, will also be on stage.

Other Democrats still in the race but who didn’t qualify for the debate are Michael Bennet, Steve Bullock, John Delaney, Tim Ryan, Joe Sestak and Marianne Williamson.

--With assistance from Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

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

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