Ukraine scandal exposes deep rifts in Democratic party as 2020 candidates fail to unite behind Joe Biden

Ever since President Donald Trump came under fire over his controversial phone conversation with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, the Democrats have hoping for a grand turnaround in their impeachment fortunes. With just over a year to go before the next presidential elections, launching an impeachment inquiry into the president on charges of abuse of power seems like a last powerful throw of the dice. But despite the anti-Trump cry in their camp the Democrats still have reason to worry as deep divisions have emerged that could seriously undermine their chances of winning the Battle of 2020.

There is no ambiguity when it comes to the Democratic candidates opposing Trump over the allegations that he tried to put pressure on the government of Ukraine to investigate his Joe Biden and his son in a bid to derail his presidential run, but that doesn’t automatically translate into a united backing for Biden among Democratic candidates.

Warren, Harris and Sanders keep a low profile on Biden

According to a report by the Associated Press, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren took an 'indirect' stand on the issue. The 2020 presdential candidate said she would consider stopping her vice-president’s children from working on the boards of foreign firms. This is clearly in reference to Hunter Biden, Joe Bidens son who was working on the board of a Ukrainian gas company linked to the country’s inner political battles and which saw the alleged involvement of the former vice-president Joe in some capacity. Trump used this as a base for his corruption accusations against both father and son.

Warren and Biden have found themselves pitted against each other as frontrunners in the 2020 Democratic candidate race recently. In fact, Warren's prospects of bagging the nomination turned off party's donors on Wall Street and in big business who threatened to sit out the campaign fundraising cycle or even back Trump. The reason is that during her campaign Warren has put forward plans to curb the influence of the Wall Street, including introducing a wealth tax.

Kamala Harris, another candidate in the fray, also shied away from going into the details of the Biden-Ukraine issue. When asked whether Trump’s attacks say something about her Democratic rival’s “campaign or character”, the California senator put the ball into the pundits’ court. “I don't have a comment on that,” she was quoted as saying by AP.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, another candidate who attacked Trump on the issue and felt the impeachment process should start immediately, dodged a question about whether the Biden controversy makes him a less suitable candidate. It may be mentioned here that Sanders had previously defended Hillary Clinton in 2016 against attacks over her using a private email server when she was secretary of state. 

The reactions from Warren, Harris and Sanders show that the while they are quick to point out Trump's missteps in the Ukraine crisis, they are also savvy enough to grasp that any hit to Biden's reputation could see them boost theirs in the run-up to 2020. 

Buttigieg, Booker and Castro are more sympathetic towards Biden

Other Democratic candidates like Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker and Julian Castro, however, are more sympathetic towards Biden and one reason is perhaps they are not as close to the former vice-president in the race as the above three. While Buttigieg recently rejected answering questions about Biden on CNN saying it would only divert the focus and help Republicans escape the glare, Booker and Castro were more forthright in backing Biden. Booker said in response to a tweet by Trump seeking “transparency” from the Bidens: “Well, we found one thing that's transparent: your deception. We're not going to let you do this again to another patriot."

Castro, on the other hand, told reporters: “Donald Trump is trying to do to Joe Biden what he did to Hillary Clinton, to turn somebody who has given a lifetime of service and done it honorably into the victim of false accusations.” 

The lack of party unity has not impressed Biden's team

For Biden and his team, the lack of overt support from the other Democratic candidates has jarred. Biden's team sees in the Ukraine episode a Trump strategy of projecting his potential weaknesses -- foreign business entanglements -- onto the former vice-president, something he had done with Clinton in the previous election by targeting the Clinton Foundation. 

Delaware’s Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a top supporter of Biden, pointed out the Democratic disunity sharply, saying: “You've got to put the national interest ahead of your own personal interest in the primary,” the AP report further added.

Coons cautioned that Trump would target the leading presidential candidate from the Democratic Party and picked Biden since he is leading at the moment. “...it's going to be spread around. And they should recognize that this is a threat not just to their electoral prospects but to our democratic process,” he was quoted as saying.

Biden also spoke on the matter, saying the issue is not about him but about a tactic used by the president to hijack an election.