Questions for Mr. Biden

Kimberley Strassel, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, lists eight topics Joe Biden should be compelled to address in tomorrow night's debate with Donald Trump. There are others, of course, but he should be asked at least about these:

• Hunter Biden. Joe Biden wants this election to be about character. Fair enough, but that requires addressing the ethical swamp that was his son’s business during the Biden vice presidency. As a new Senate report makes clear, the candidate’s son was cashing in. The vice president was warned and did nothing about it. Will this kind of influence-peddling be the norm in a Biden presidency?

• The Supreme Court. Mr. Biden in June said he was compiling a short list of black women for the high court, and that he’d release it after further “vetting.” He now refuses, saying such a list could subject his picks to “attacks.” Mr. Trump has been entirely open about his vision for the court, and the names on his list have withstood scrutiny. Doesn’t Mr. Biden have a similar obligation to transparency, especially as he says the 2020 winner should fill the seat vacated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI spent 2016-17 investigating a GOP political campaign, using tactics that were condemned by the Justice Department inspector general and are now the subject of a U.S. attorney’s investigation. How briefed was Vice President Biden on this probe? Why did he personally unmask Mike Flynn? Does he agree with the inspector general that these tactics were wrong? Should the public fear a Biden FBI will also investigate Mr. Biden’s political opponents?

• Political norms. Mr. Biden talks about Mr. Trump’s norm-breaking, and he has a point. Will he call out his own party’s norm-breaking? Will he oppose abolishing the Senate filibuster? Will he oppose court packing? Will he acknowledge the damage of politicized impeachment proceedings?

• The economy and spending. By one count, Mr. Biden has pledged some $11 trillion in new spending over a decade. Yet his tax proposal will raise only one-third this amount. Where’s the rest, and does he truly propose adding further to a spiraling deficit? Meanwhile, his tax proposal (the largest permanent increase since World War II) and regulatory regime would impose new costs on companies and families reeling from shutdowns. Spending doesn’t equal jobs. So how, specifically, does Joe intend to revive the economy?

• Energy. Mr. Biden insists his fracking ban would apply solely to public lands. How does he reconcile that with past promises to get rid of all fracking? Where does he stand on coal? Does he acknowledge that his plan for net-zero carbon emissions, by necessity, requires the elimination of most fracking and coal jobs?

• Administration. Mr. Biden ran as a moderate but has made significant concessions to retain progressive support. What will his cabinet look like? Will he return to Obama-era familiars? Or will we see Secretaries Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar?

• Religious liberty. Mr. Biden speaks often of his Catholic faith, attempting outreach to religious voters. How does he square this pitch with his promises to roll back religious freedoms, like ending conscience protections for nuns and other religious employers?

• Health. Mr. Biden would be the oldest president ever, and even some Democrats express concern about his mental acuity. Will he provide comprehensive medical records to assure voters of his fitness for office?

I'd also like to see him asked about exactly what he would have done differently in response to the Covid-19 pandemic than the Trump administration did, why it took him so long to say anything at all critical of the rioters in our cities, what he thinks about efforts to defund the police, what he thinks about the Democrats' Green New Deal proposal, how he reconciles his support for unrestricted abortion rights with his profession of Catholic faith, whether he supports gun confiscation, abolition of the electoral college, granting statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, allowing biological men to use girls' restrooms, sanctuary cities, and racial "reparations," and whether he supports offering poor families the choice of which schools their children will attend.

His responses to such questions, were they honest, would be edifying for many voters.

Strassel closes her column with this:

To listen to the media, Mr. Biden will have “won” the first debate if he merely remains upright. But let’s set the bar appropriately. The former vice president was long known as a capable debater, and he’s supposedly spent much of the past month prepping.

Americans deserve to know exactly what they are signing up for in this election. And these questions are the bare minimum of understanding what a Biden presidency would be like.