A 1.23 N.Y. Times story reports that three weeks before the November 2018 election former Vice President Joe Biden accepted a $200K speaking fee from the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan, and during his speech supported Representative Fred Upton, a long-serving Republican “who in 2017 helped craft a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.”

Except from article, written by Alexander Burns: “Biden stunned Democrats and elated Republicans by praising Upton while the lawmaker looked on from the audience. Alluding to Upton’s support for a landmark medical-research law, Mr. Biden called him a champion in the fight against cancer — and “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.”

“Biden’s remarks, coming amid a wide-ranging discourse on American politics, quickly appeared in Republican advertising. The local Democratic Party pleaded with Biden to repair what it saw as a damaging error, to no avail. On Nov. 6, Upton defeated his Democratic challenger by four and a half percentage points.

“As Biden considers a bid for the presidency in 2020, the episode underscores his potential vulnerabilities in a fight for the Democratic nomination and raises questions about his judgment as a party leader. Biden has attempted to strike a balance since leaving office, presenting himself as a unifying statesman who could unseat President Trump while also working to amass a modest fortune of several million dollars.

“Biden’s appearance in Michigan plainly set his lucrative personal activities at odds with what some Democrats saw as his duty to the party, linking him with a civic group seen as tilting to the right and undermining Democrats’ effort to defeat Upton.”

Biden definitely has a problem. If and when he announces his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President, he’s going to be hit hard on this. The story obviously reeks of implications of corruption.