“My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong,” Biden said. “I carried out the policy of the United States in rooting out corruption in Ukraine.”

In 2016, Biden called for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor, who was seen by the Obama administration, western governments and organizations like the International Monetary Fund as not aggressively investigating corruption. Trump and his allies have alleged without evidence that Biden intervened to support his son’s business interests.

Cooper notably framed the Hunter Biden question by stating outright that Trump has “falsely accused” Biden’s son of “doing something wrong while serving on a company board if Ukraine” and noted “there’s no evidence of wrongdoing by either one of you.”

Some prominent Republicans, including the president’s son, blasted Cooper’s handling of the question about the former vice president’s son.

“Anderson Cooper is the DNC’s MVP so far for the night covering for #QuidProJoe even when Hunter Biden said they talked about it,” tweeted Donald Trump Jr. “Would be nice if they called out the BS once in a while.”

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee suggested Cooper “loved Biden” and “hated” Trump. “What a joke,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in mocking Cooper’s question.

On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Hunter Biden acknowledged exercising “poor judgment" in joining foreign companies while his father was in office, yet rejected the claims of his accusers.

"I regret not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this ridiculous conspiracy idea, which has again been completely debunked by everyone,” he said.

The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney wrote that accusations from Trump “are based on conspiracy theories,” but argued that Hunter Biden accepting $50,000 a month from Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings while his father was vice president is “corrupt.” He suggested Cooper “ask the other candidates, particularly the ones talking about inequality, if they agree with his assessment that Hunter did nothing wrong.”

Cooper didn’t dwell on the Hunter Biden angle — and neither did Joe Biden’s rivals.

The next candidate called on, Sen. Bernie Sanders, shifted the focus to issues he’s concerned about, such as the millions of uninsured Americans and climate change. Later, Sen. Cory Booker revisited the Hunter Biden question in suggesting it was a reminder of problematic 2016 election coverage.

“We are literally using Donald Trump's lies and the second issue we cover is elevating a lie and attacking a statesman. That was so offensive,” said Booker. “The only person sitting at home that was enjoying that was Donald Trump seeing we are distracting from his malfeasance and selling out of his office. I'm having deja vu all over again.

Philippe Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, tweeted that Booker was “10000% right” and that Cooper’s “question to Joe Biden about ethics charges is exactly why trump makes shit up out of thin air.”

“The media is so worried about being called liberal they go overboard proving they’re not,” Reines continued. “In doing so, they are not being journalists.”