Joe Biden, in Iowa, says his family won't work for foreign companies if he's president

Former Vice President Joe Biden said if he is elected president, no one in his family will hold a job or have a business relationship with a foreign corporation or foreign government.

"No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country. Period. Period. End of story," Biden told reporters in Iowa after giving remarks at a labor conference.

Biden's remarks to reporters at the United Food and Commercial Workers 2020 presidential forum in Altoona on Sunday came hours after his son, Hunter, announced he would step down from the board of a Chinese private equity firm and committed to not do any foreign work if his father is elected president.

Biden said his son's lawyers had told him they would be issuing a statement but said he did not consult with his son about the statement and only saw it when it was released publicly Sunday morning.

Biden said no one has asserted he or his son have done anything wrong, except President Donald Trump.

The younger Biden has become a target of Trump’s criticism for his work on the boards of companies in Ukraine and China, although there is no evidence that he engaged in unlawful behavior.

Trump’s request of the Ukrainian president to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings in that country has become the basis for an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House. Democrats allege the request amounted to using the power of the presidency to improperly ask a foreign power to investigate the family of one of his domestic political rivals. Trump has said he did not do anything wrong.

► Read the transcript:The summary of President Trump's call with Ukraine president

► Watch:Trump: Ukraine and China should investigate Bidens

Biden said no news organizations that have investigated his son's business dealings have found that there was any wrongdoing by the Bidens.

"No one, no one has asserted my son did a single thing wrong. No one has asserted that I have done anything wrong, except a lying president," Biden told reporters.

Biden's pledge that his family will not be involved with foreign governments or hold roles in his White House is a contrast with Trump, whose daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, both work as White House advisers. Two of Trump's other children, Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., run the business operations of the Trump Organization, which has real estate projects around the world. The two have promised not to pursue new foreign deals while their father is president.

"If I am your next president, I'm going to build on the squeaky clean, transparent environment that we had in the Obama-Biden White House," Biden said.

Biden's appearance at the labor forum was his first visit to Iowa since calling for Trump to be impeached last week. Biden is one of the last Democratic presidential contenders to signal his support for the U.S. House's impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Failing to pursue the impeachment inquiry against the president could give future presidents license to engage in unethical behavior, Biden said at the forum.

"If, in fact, the House doesn’t move and let the facts fall where they may, what does the next unethical president, if we elect another one, what does that say they can do?" Biden said. "What’s that say? What’s going to happen? They have to know there’s consequences."

Biden suggested growing public opinion on impeachment will sway more Republicans in Congress to support it. Several public polls in recent days have found that public support for an impeachment inquiry tops 50%.

"What’s going to change Republican minds in the United States Congress is when their constituents start changing their minds," Biden told the labor forum. "And you’re seeing it start to happen: More Republican voters, independent voters are saying, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn’t know this.'"

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

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