MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Friday that Republicans played the Hunter Biden scandals “masterfully.”
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified to the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee in late May, alleging the Department of Justice (DOJ) slow-walked and obstructed its criminal investigation into Biden’s tax violations. The Oversight Committee is investigating President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings.
“Jonathan Lemire, I’ve got to give the right credit, the Trump right credit,” Scarborough began. “They have played the refs masterfully on this, constantly saying ‘Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden.’ And, you know, we’ve talked about Hunter Biden. We’ve said if Hunter is guilty – and I’ve met Hunter Biden once or twice, I don’t know him personally, but I feel the same way about Hunter Biden as, I’m sorry, that I’d feel about you or a member of my family: They did something illegal, well, it would be sad, but, you know, go to jail.”
“So, there’s been this idea that somehow the media is personally invested in protecting Hunter Biden, when the fact is, again, time and time again, these investigators just keep making fools of themselves,” Scarborough continued. (RELATED: ‘Insurrectionists, Weirdos, Freaks!’: Scarborough Has Meltdown Over People Investigating Hunter Biden)
Shapley and a second IRS whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, testified before House Oversight on June 22 with allegations the DOJ intentionally slow-walked its probe into the first son’s tax crimes by withholding evidence and ignoring recommendations to prosecute him. Hunter Biden’s former business associate, Devon Archer, testified to the committee in July that the first son spoke to his father “more than 20 times about their business deals,” Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the Daily Caller.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley acquired an FD-1023 form from DOJ whistleblowers containing allegations that Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, was “forced or coerced” to pay Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each to “take care of … issues” pertaining to former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. The firm was interested in pursuing business in North America at the time, but Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption in Ukraine.
Biden and the White House have repeatedly denied the president had any knowledge or communication with his son about Hunter’s foreign business dealings. “As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son,” White House Counsel spokesperson Ian Sams said in June.