Joe Biden has lashed out at a reporter in response to a question about his family's potential conflicts of interest in the Ukraine, insisting that press should focus on allegations against President Donald Trump.

At a Service Employees International Union forum in Los Angeles on Friday, Biden was asked about his work overseeing foreign policy for Ukraine as vice president while his son Hunter served on the board of a major Ukrainian company.

'It's not a conflict of interest. There's been no indication of any conflict of interest, in Ukraine or anywhere else. Period,' Biden snapped.

Asked how his son's cushy $50,000-a-month gig didn't at least create the appearance of a conflict of interest, Biden rejoined: 'I'm not going to respond to that. Focus on this man. What he's doing that no president has ever done. No president.'

Biden pauses while speaking at the SEIU forum on Friday. After the event he snapped at a reporter who asked about his potential conflicts of interest

Biden has previously demanded that reporters 'ask the right questions' and accused Trump of trying to 'hijack' the campaign with unfounded assertions that Biden and his son had corrupt dealings in Ukrainian business and politics.

In late September in Iowa, the former VP scolded a Fox News reporter who asked about his family's ties to Ukraine. 'You should be asking him the question: why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader?' he said.

'This appears to be an overwhelming abuse of power. To get on the phone with a foreign leader who is looking for help from the United States and ask about me and imply things … this is outrageous. You have never seen anything like this from any president.'

Biden renewed his attack on the president with a tweet on Saturday, writing: 'Donald Trump is the definition of corruption.'

In late September in Iowa, the former VP scolded a Fox News reporter who asked about his family's ties to Ukraine

Devon Archer, far left, golfing in the Hamptons with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, far right, in 2014. Archer served on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings with Hunter

On Friday, Trump maintained that he had an 'obligation' to request assistance from foreign governments to investigate alleged corruption and asks he made of China and Ukraine were not politically motivated in any way.

Trump insisted that the foreign investigations he's demanding are about Hunter Biden 'pillaging these countries and hurting us,' not his father's bid to become the next President of the United States.

The scandal around Trump's phone call to the Ukrainian president, asking him to investigate possible Biden family corruption there, has the potential to drag on Biden's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, in addition to driving the House's impeachment inquiry into Trump.

In third quarter fundraising reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Biden placed fourth for money raised from donors.

Senator Bernie Sanders leads the field, so far, pulling in $25.3 million, with Senator Elizabeth Warren's $24.6 million close behind. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, came in third with $19.1 million.

From there, the drop off is steep, with Biden pulling in $15.2 million.

The latest national polling shows Biden with just a 2.2-point lead on Warren, down from a large double-digit lead on his rivals just months ago.

In third quarter fundraising reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Biden placed fourth for money raised from donors

Meanwhile, the impeachment heat on Trump has only been increasing.

On Friday, the impeachment inquiry reached directly into the White House for the first time as Democrats subpoenaed officials about contacts with Ukraine and President Donald Trump signaled his administration would not cooperate.

The demand for documents capped a tumultuous week that widened the constitutional battle between the executive branch and Congress and sharpened the political standoff with more witnesses, testimony and documents to come.

Trump said he would formally object to Congress about the House impeachment inquiry, even as he acknowledged that Democrats 'have the votes' to proceed. They'll be sorry in the end, he predicted.

'I really believe that they're going to pay a tremendous price at the polls,' Trump said.

However, Trump faced the first public criticism from Senate Republicans over the affair after publicly calling for another foreign government, China, to investigate Hunter's dealings there while Biden was vice president

On Friday, with Senator Mitt Romney fired off a pair of tweets condemning Trump's 'brazen and unprecedented' requests that foreign governments Biden .

Biden said that the media should keep the focus on President Trump (seen above returning to the White House after playing golf in his Virginia club on Saturday)

'By all appearances, the President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling,' wrote Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah

Romney, the Republican Party 's failed 2012 nominee for president, issued the public condemnation of the president's actions after a whistle-blower blew the lid off Trump's requests to get Ukraine to probe Biden and his son Hunter.

'When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China 's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,' Romney wrote Friday.

'By all appearances, the President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling,' he added.

Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse condemned Trump's remarks Thursday night. 'Hold up: Americans don't look to Chinese commies for the truth. If the Biden kid broke laws by selling his name to Beijing, that's a matter for American courts, not communist tyrants running torture camps,' he told the Omaha World-Herald.

Another former GOP presidential candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, dismissed Trump's comments on the White House South lawn Thursday that Ukraine and China should investigate Biden.

'I don't think it's a real request,' Rubio said in Florida Friday, speculating that Trump may have been trying to get a rise out of reporters.

'I don't know if that's a real request or him just needling the press knowing you guys were going to get outraged by it. He's pretty good at getting everyone fired up and the media responded right on task,' Rubio said.

While visiting Athens, Greece on Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the Trump administration's approach to Ukraine that is at the center of an impeachment inquiry.

He rejected allegations it was an inappropriate or illegal abuse of power for which Congress should remove Trump from office.