Joe Biden to vow “I’m not going anywhere” in speech — watch live

October 2, 2019

Former Vice President Joe Biden will use a campaign speech in Reno, Nevada, on Wednesday night to call out President Trump for “repeatedly smearing me and my family.” The 2020 Democratic hopeful’s speech — expected to happen at 10 p.m. ET — comes as Mr. Trump has tried to refocus the whistleblower story as being about Biden’s son Hunter’s involvement in Ukraine.

“Let me make something clear to Trump and his hatchet men and the special interests funding his attacks against me — I’m not going anywhere,” Biden will say, according to excerpts from the speech. “You’re not going to destroy me. And you’re not going to destroy my family. I don’t care how much money you spend or how dirty the attacks get.”

Biden will again call Mr. Trump’s call to the Ukrainian president an “abuse of power.” Biden will also ask Americans to consider the “character” of the president.

“That’s why one of the gravest threats to our democracy is a president who puts their own personal gain ahead of the public good,” Biden will say. “And that is why Trump will do anything it takes to hold on to it.”

Despite no evidence that Biden had asked a Ukrainian prosecutor to drop an investigation into Hunter, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, the Bidens’ names have been brought in connection with the whistleblower controversy. According to the summary the White House released of the July phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump said “there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that. So whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has since ordered an impeachment inquiry based on the phone calls.