On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” White House Spokesman for Oversight and Investigations Ian Sams responded to a question on Hunter Biden stating that President Joe Biden had no financial involvement in Hunter’s businesses and how that’s different from prior claims that the President didn’t talk about the business and wasn’t involved by stating that it’s one of the GOP’s “favorite little shiny objects is to try to take a semantic thing” and “nothing has changed. The President was not in business with his son, period.”
Co-host Phil Mattingly asked, “In the statement that Hunter Biden made yesterday, he said, ‘Let me state as clearly as I can. My father was not financially involved in my business –‘ he was unequivocal about that. But that is an evolution of where the President had been during the campaign, where the White House had been at the start of the administration, not involved financially in the business. It’s very different than never talked about the business, not been involved in the business at all. Was that an intentional point of clarity, do you think?”
Sams responded, “I actually dispute the whole premise of that question. It’s one of Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) favorite little shiny objects is to try to take a semantic thing and make an argument that is somehow far afield from what they’re actually focused on. We’ve been extremely clear, over and over again, for years, and nothing has changed. The President was not in business with his son, period. They’re trying to make up all sorts of allegations and make up lies about –.”
Mattingly then cut in to say, “Ian, with respect, I’m not citing Jim Jordan here. I was in some of the White House press briefings where it was said explicitly the president did not talk to his son about business dealing[s]. That is very clearly not the case, and I think the statement from the White House has changed and I think been a little bit more precise over the course of the last several months. It’s what the President said on the campaign trail as well. I’m not saying this is like an impeachable offense or some grand indictment, but it is a fact that the President said one thing that ended up being not true.”
Sams responded, “Again, I dispute that that’s true. That is not true. The truth is that he wasn’t in business with his son. The Republicans have been for years trying to make arguments that he was somehow wrapped up in all of this, and over and over again, those have been refuted. And so, what they do is they try to take semantic games and try to distract from the actual truth, which is that all of these things have been debunked. These allegations are false. And they’re using their power in Congress to launch this impeachment inquiry over false allegations that have no basis in reality.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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