Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre point-blank if President Joe Biden had involvement in his “family business schemes.”
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee said there is evidence that Biden “lied to the American people” about his involvement in his family’s overseas business dealings. The new Republican majority in the House has vowed to investigate the president’s son, Hunter, over his dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, and a Chinese energy company, CEFC China Energy.
“With the new Republican majority coming in, the House Oversight Committee is laying out their new investigations, and they claim it had evidence that Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family’s business schemes. Did he?” Doocy asked at Tuesday’s press briefing.
“So look, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. House Republicans promise that fighting inflation during the midterms was going to be their number one priority, that is what they said was important to them and that’s what they said they wanted to do,” Jean-Pierre said. “But instead, what they’re doing, is wanting to start an investigation on the president and his family. They don’t want to focus on the American people and their family, they want to focus on political division. They want to focus on something that the American people do not want to see, as we saw from the midterm elections.”
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House Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a report in November alleging that Biden “misused his public positions” to enhance his family’s “financial interests.” Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer previously said that they “laid out the evidence” to investigate the president’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.
A report released by Senate Republicans in September 2020 that the younger Biden “cashed in” on his father’s position of power, though it does not specify Biden’s role in his son’s business dealings. (RELATED: Doocy Presses Jean-Pierre On Biden Allegedly Leaving Voicemail To His Son About His Business Dealings)
The president has repeatedly denied having any involvement in his son’s business dealings. During his presidential candidacy in 2019, he told reporters that he had never had a discussion with Hunter about his business dealings. An alleged voicemail from 2018 obtained by the Daily Mail found that Biden intended to talk to his son about a New York Times article reporting his business dealings in China.
Reports by the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Homeland Security Committee found that CEFC China Energy wired nearly $4.8 million to Hunter’s law firm through September 2018. His now-accredited abandoned laptop found receipts and emails detailing his dealings with CEFC and Burisma.
Doocy also questioned the press secretary on whether the administration believes the U.S.-Mexico border is “secure,” given that migrant apprehension numbers have reached record surges. Jean-Pierre said the president has been committed to working on border security and passing legislation and funding to strengthen the border.
She further criticized Republicans for allegedly pulling “political stunts” at the border, namely the bussing and relocation of migrants to liberal cities.
“We have made this a priority to make sure that there are border security measures. The president has taken historic actions that no other president has been able to do,” she said, naming the 23,000 additional agents sent to the border. “That is something that he did without a lot of Republican support.”