President Joe Biden appeared to stand by statements he made during the 2020 presidential campaign when he claimed to have never spoken with his son about cutting business deals overseas.
Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich engaged the president as he was walking by during an event at the White House on Monday.
“Did you lie about never speaking to Hunter about his business deals?” Heinrich asked.
Biden responded, “No,” before walking away without answering more questions.
Members of Biden’s family, including his son, Hunter, have long been accused of trading the Biden family name overseas to score lucrative contracts with foreign businessmen. The allegations received fresh attention last week after explosive evidence suggested that the relationship between the president and his family’s foreign dealings is much closer than Biden has acknowledged.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) released whistleblower testimonies on Thursday from IRS agents who allege that the Justice Department has interfered in the investigation into Hunter and is suppressing evidence of the first son’s misdeeds. The IRS whistleblowers claimed in Congressional testimony to have uncovered a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message that Hunter sent to Henry Zhao, an executive at the Chinese energy company CEFC.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter allegedly wrote to Zhao.
Less than ten days after that message was allegedly sent, CEFC accounts wired more than $5 million to accounts associated with Hunter Biden.
The White House counsel’s office released a statement a day after Smith released the testimonies. It did not mention Biden’s campaign claim that he never spoke with his son about Hunter’s business affairs.
“As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, and in this case, the White House has not been involved,” spokesman Ian Sams said. “As the President has said, he loves his son and is proud of him accepting responsibility for his actions and is proud of what he is doing to rebuild his life.”
The authenticity of the alleged WhatsApp message suggesting a connection between the president and his son’s business affairs has not yet been directly contradicted. Hunter’s attorney said on Friday that “any verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.”
Post a Comment