Jake Tapper on Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Dealings: ‘Frankly, It Does Stink’

CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper on Sunday declared that while there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden regarding his business activities in Ukraine, his dealings in the country do “stink.”

(Watch from 4:18)

A partial transcript is as follows:

JAKE TAPPER: It’s true that there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing by Vice President Biden or that Hunter Biden broke any laws at all. But frankly, it does stink that Hunter Biden got this contract with no expertise in the energy sector and likely — he already said basically that he probably got that money, which was significant, because of his connection with his father, the vice president of the time, who was also in charge of Ukraine at the time. Do you think future presidents and vice presidents should say my relatives cannot cash in, in any way, on their connection to me?

REP. JOE KENNEDY (D-MA): Look, I think it is certainly worth putting that out there and worth trying to make sure that there is not any sort of profit that is going to be earned by close relatives in office. I’ve had plenty of family members in office. I understand the responsibility that comes with holding a position of public responsibility and ensuring that there is a very clear delineation there so there isn’t those profiting off it.

I do think though if we’re going to have this conversation, it’s awfully hard for me to reconcile those words and comments and clarity put forth vice president Biden and by Hunter Biden, with the fact that you have the current president’s children running around on an international hotel chain that is being supported by U.S. military service members staying at their hotels across the world. [Trump] tried to host the G7 at his struggling hotel in Florida and his daughter runs clothing lines and jewelry lines that just got patents from China in the midst of a trade war. Look, some of those might be legitimate, but some of those might not be. Let’s be clear and make sure everyone is being held to the same standard. Once again, I don’t think that’s the case here.