Politics

Biden Says He Never Discussed Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Deal. Hunter Says He Did

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Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed he never discussed Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. However, a July article from The New Yorker belies that contention.

“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Saturday in Iowa before calling on President Donald Trump to be investigated over a phone call he made to Ukraine’s president.

The New Yorker article, titled “Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign?” is an in depth look at Hunter Biden’s life and business dealings. It also contains a segment where Hunter apparently recalled discussing Ukrainian natural-gas producer Burisma “just once.”

In December, 2015, as Joe Biden prepared to return to Ukraine, his aides braced for renewed scrutiny of Hunter’s relationship with Burisma. Amos Hochstein, the Obama Administration’s special envoy for energy policy, raised the matter with Biden, but did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board. As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.’ ”

The inconsistency was pointed out on Twitter by Daily Mail U.S. political editor David Martosko:

During a July 25 phone call, a whistleblower claims President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at least eight times to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.

However, a senior administration official told Fox News’ Ed Henry that the call contained “no quid pro quo,” and that it would be “in the president’s interest” to release the call transcript. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton On Ukraine: Trump ‘Asked A Foreign Power To Help Him Win An Election Again’)

Trump denies any wrongdoing and called the whistleblower “highly partisan.”