Former Vice President Joe Biden appears on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." (Photo: Screen capture)

(CNSNews.com) - Former Vice President Joe Biden, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel's show Wednesday night, was (gently) asked about the "gossip element" of the latest controversy swirling around President Trump.

Kimmel was referring to Biden's threat, in 2016, to withhold a U.S. loan guarantee to Ukraine unless Ukraine fired its prosecutor-general. At the time, Biden's troubled son Hunter was working for a Ukrainian gas company that had come to the prosecutor's attention, at the very least, and may have been a target for the prosecutor.

Biden's response:

Look, you know, when you step back from it, this is not about me and my family. There's not one single solitary legitimate journalist in the world given any credibility to this. They've debunked all of what he's had to say for the past -- since Giuliani started this a while ago. But what I do worry about, I do worry about all the other families that can't take care of themselves and what's happening with this president and his constant diversions into -- look, we want to get his attention, have 70 polls in a row showing you beating him, and that all of a sudden gets his attention. And so I think that's why I'm the object of his attention. But look, there is much more at stake than whether or not he's acting so bizarrely. This is -- the idea that someone would call a head of a foreign state, ahead of time withhold significant military aid that’s badly need in order to prevent the Russian separatists who are in Ukraine from taking over Ukraine, and then ask, basically, to, can you cooperate with Rudy Giuliani's coming over -- and the thing I learned, we learned, we all learned recently is that statement -- that the 2,000 word statement released (he meant the phone call summary) -- was that -- talked about getting the Justice Department engaged in this. I mean, it's such a blatant abuse of power that it's, it just, I don't think it can stand.

“Well, do you think it is an impeachable...offense?” Kimmel asked Biden, speaking about Trump's telephone call with the newly elected Ukraine president in July.

“Based on the material that they acknowledged today, it seems to me it's awful hard to avoid the conclusion that it is an impeachable offense and a violation of constitutional responsibility,” Biden said. “But look, that's-- I am confident in the ability of the House and Senate to deal with this. My job is to just go out and flat beat him.”

(He was cheered at this point.)

Biden said he can’t let the controversy distract him from the issues that are the reason he’s running. He mentioned health care and the environment.

Then Kimmel asked Biden, “How much of your desire to run is related to Donald Trump being president? In other words, if someone, a decent man like Jeb Bush had won the Republican nomination, would you feel as motivated to run?

“I guess the honest answer is no,” Biden replied. “Look, I hadn't planned on running again.”