Den stora samlingstråden om Joe Biden

Ukraine must investigate the activities of Joe Biden’s son to establish whether his role in a Ukrainian gas company complied with the country’s laws, Mykola Azarov, Ukraine’s former prime minister, said in an interview.

“I think it’s essential,” Azarov told Reuters in Moscow where he fled after street protests toppled Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovich in 2014.

“Given that this question has been raised there is a real reason for this to be looked into. It’s a fact (his directorship and fees) and not made up. It should be investigated so that the “i” s can be dotted and the “t” s crossed.”

Azarov said the key thing for investigators to establish from a Ukrainian legal viewpoint would be whether Biden’s fee was a token one or whether he actually did any work to justify it.

“If, using his knowledge, he played an active role then there’s nothing scandalous about it. But if he was simply on the books and getting money then that could be seen as a violation of the law.”

It is also not clear how the president’s claims will affect the Democratic primary. So far, Mr. Biden’s Democratic competitors have largely avoided discussing his son. Sen. Elizabeth Warren declined to say in an interview Friday whether Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma was appropriate. “I know that everyone wants to try to drag in other people. But what happened with Ukraine is about Donald Trump,” she said.

Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential campaign contacted top television anchors and networks on Sunday to “demand” that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, be kept off the air because of what they called his misleading comments about the Biden family and Ukraine.

“We are writing today with grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump,” a pair of top Biden campaign advisers, Anita Dunn and Kate Bedingfield, wrote in the letter.

“Giving Rudy Giuliani valuable time on your air to push these lies in the first place is a disservice to your audience and a disservice to journalism,” the advisers wrote.

The note, which was obtained by The New York Times, was sent to executives and top political anchors at ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC, including star interviewers like Jake Tapper, Chuck Todd and Chris Wallace.

On Sunday, Mr. Giuliani made freewheeling appearances on “Face the Nation” on CBS and “This Week” on ABC to discuss the impeachment inquiry.

Producers at both shows also requested interviews with Mr. Biden. The Biden campaign declined the invitation and instead offered its national co-chairman, Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, an option that the producers rejected, according to three people familiar with the deliberations.