Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, on Sunday challenged former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden to a public debate over which son has "profited" off their fathers' government service.
In a preview of Axios on HBO interview that was scheduled to air Sunday evening, Trump Jr. told host Jim VandeHei, who's also the co-founder and CEO of the news website Axios, that he wants to debate Biden and offered to do it on his show.
When asked by VandeHei to describe the "attacks" Biden's father could face from Republicans during the 2020 race, Trump Jr. said: "You have a guy that's telling us he's going to do all these things, but he's been in politics for 50 years, why hasn't he done it then? ... If Donald Trump mixed up Iowa and Ohio once... Joe Biden doesn't know what state he's in 50 percent of the time, if Donald Trump did the equivalent, you would not hear anything other than that."
VandeHei asked whether Hunter Biden's controversies in Ukraine would be "a part of" the attacks.
"It's gotta be a big part," Trump Jr. said. "I was an international business person before my father got into politics, that's what we did. I'm not going to say I haven't benefited from my father's last name, just like Hunter Biden did, that would be foolish to say that. But I haven't benefited from my father's taxpayer-funded office."
"Hunter Biden, his father becomes VP, all of a sudden he's going over to the Ukraine and he's making $83,000 a month. The media like to do this false equivalence. We stopped doing any new international business deals when my father won the presidency."
"You know what would be great, I'll let you host it. You moderate a debate between Hunter Biden and myself," the president's son proposed, to the sound of applause from the crowd. "Let's do it. Seriously. We can go full transparency. We show everything and we can talk about all the places where I'm supposedly grifting and Hunter Biden isn't. I would love to do it."
"The great 'who made more off dad' debate?" VandeHei asked.
"As it relates to the grifter thing, we're profiting off of the presidency? Let's talk about it," Trump Jr. clarified--before VandeHei interjected: "But you've profited...You have a best-selling book, you do paid speeches."
"Nothing that I haven't done before [Trump took office]," Trump Jr. responded, before confirming that he will release his tax returns for the proposed debate if Hunter Biden did the same.
"I'd 100 percent debate him," Trump Jr. added. "Let's talk about who profited off of whose public service. Happy to do it. Let's make it happen."
Newsweek reached out to Joe Biden's 2020 campaign for comment.
While Biden's Super Tuesday victory has solidified his moderate campaign's front-runner status, it has also raised concerns that Republicans and Trump will continue to use alleged controversies surrounding his son's work in Ukraine to discredit his presidential run.
Republicans are expected to intensify their probe into the former vice president's son next week after Utah Senator Mitt Romney joined his GOP colleagues in authorizing a subpoena as part of an investigation into the alleged conflicts of interest that arose from Biden's presidency in light of his son's former employment at Burisma.
Romney voted in favor of the subpoena just days after he had suggested that the Senate Homeland Security Committee shouldn't even be probing the issue.
Trump Jr. 's remarks about the former vice president's son was not the first time he had attacked Hunter Biden over alleged nepotism. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity last October, the president's eldest son said he wished that he too could profit off his father's presidency while discussing the media's allegedly favorable treatment of the Bidens.
"Well, I wish my name was Hunter Biden," Trump Jr. said. "I could go abroad, make millions off of my father's presidency. I would be a really rich guy. It would be incredible. But because my name is Trump, if I took 1.5 dollars from China. Not $1.5 billion like Hunter. But 1.5 dollars. Their heads would explode."
