Late in 2019 I wrote the following Letter to the Editor of the Columbus Dispatch. I feared Hunter Biden would make his father too vulnerable to win against Trump in the 2020 election, and said so. I took substantial abuse in subsequent editorials as well as from my neighbors at the time for daring to express such views. And of course Biden did not take advice from people like me, ran anyway, and wound up winning the Presidency.

Now 4 years later what I feared then may actually be coming true this campaign season. According to the polls, most Americans think the President was engaged in wrongdoing with his son while Vice President. Even a large minority of Democrats seem to fear the President is seriously weakened and may not win. Maybe I was right, but just got the year wrong.

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Letters to the Editor – Columbus Dispatch – October 22, 2019

It’s time for Joe Biden to gracefully bow out of the 2020 presidential race. I was a supporter of Joe for President in 2008 until he dropped out. So I am clearly not anti-Biden. But things are different this time.

I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory that Vice President Biden used his office to cover up corrupt behavior of his son. I also doubt that his son was in fact involved in any corrupt behavior in his position on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company.

However, I have no doubt that Hunter Biden got his position because his father was Vice President.  I am also certain the company used Hunter Biden to enhance its credibility as a legitimate business by exploiting that father/son relationship. And that, whether corrupt or not, is an optical problem both Joe Biden and his son should have recognized and avoided.

Hunter Biden has taken full responsibility for their errors of judgement but that is not enough. You can’t “un-ring a bell” so to speak. Regardless of whether there is evidence of wrongdoing or not the Republicans and Trump will continue to exploit that optical misstep. Biden’s Party and the country as a whole don’t need that distraction.

Joe: Do the right thing and withdraw from the race.

Mark Mathys

Columbus, Ohio