White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged several questions Tuesday about Hunter Biden’s unannounced trip on Marine One, which marked the first time the president’s son was spotted at the White House since his indictment on nine counts related to his alleged failure to pay over $1 million worth of taxes over a four-year period.
Hunter Biden was spotted getting off Marine One on Tuesday after President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden took a trip with their son to Delaware over the weekend. Jean-Pierre was asked why Hunter Biden was not included on the list provided to reporters of travelers who were aboard Marine One on the return trip to D.C.
“With the holidays coming up, which members of the Biden family will be spending Christmas with the president and the first lady?” a reporter asked during Tuesday’s press briefing. “And then I noticed today when the president arrived on Marine One that Hunter Biden and his son Beau were also on the helicopter with them. The White House provides to the public a list of staffers who travel with the president, why don’t they provide a list of the family members that are with the president on these government funded [inaudible]?”
“I have to double check to see if that is indeed correct. I did ask about that, so let me just double check,” Jean-Pierre responded. “Look, I’ll say this more broadly, obviously you have seen the president with his family these past couple of days, and I think you know why. They were observing a very somber anniversary for them. So I am not going to add any more to that, this was obviously a somber moment in the family and so they were certainly together to acknowledge and take part in that anniversary.”
While in Delaware, Joe and Hunter Biden attended a private church service and ate lunch together on the 51st anniversary of the death of the president’s first wife and daughter. The president and his son went to St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church and later visited the graves of their deceased family members.
Upon returning to the White House, the press office provided a list to the press of those aboard Marine One. The list included several assistants to the president and advisors to the first lady, but made no mention of Hunter Biden and his son, Beau.
Later in the press briefing Jean-Pierre noted that the White House has never noted whether Hunter or other family members would be aboard Marine One.
“With the legal trouble [Hunter Biden] is facing, leaving him off the list would appear to some like an effort to conceal him. The question that it begs is why does the president think it is appropriate that taxpayer dollars be used to fly him around when he’s been indicted and defied a congressional subpoena?” asked Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
“So I would refer you to Hunter’s personal representatives as it relates to any questions about legal affairs,” Jean-Pierre responded. “But as you know, as it relates to the past couple of days, as I just stated to your colleague, the president and their family, it was a somber anniversary that they were recognizing. So you can imagine what that was like for them.”
“And I’ll say lastly, and I’ve said that many times before, the president and their first lady love their son very, very much but as it relates to anything in his legal affairs, I would have to certainly refer you to his representatives, I just don’t have anything else to add on that,” Jean-Pierre continued.
Hunter Biden was charged in early December with nine counts — three felonies and six misdemeanors — including failure to pay taxes and failure to file taxes. The first son was also indicted in September on three federal gun charges, to which he pleaded not guilty a month later after deal with the DOJ collapsed. (RELATED: ‘Every Angle… Hurts Joe Biden’: Hunter’s Latest Stunt May Have Thrown His Dad Into A Messy Tangle, Strategists Say)
The first son also dodged a congressional deposition in defiance of a subpoena on Dec. 13. During a press conference announcing his intention to disregard the subpoena, Hunter Biden blasted Republicans for pursuing an impeachment inquiry into his father and denied that the president ever had any part in his foreign business dealings.
“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma. Not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman. Not my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist,” Hunter Biden said during the press conference.