The Republican National Committee (RNC) is calling on Joe Biden to release the transcripts of calls he had with Ukrainian and Chinese leaders while in the vice presidency.
The RNC issued a statement urging Biden to be transparent about his dealings after President Donald Trump announced he would release the transcripts of a conversation he had with Ukraine’s new head of state. The conversation had become controversial after Trump urged the Ukrainian government to probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
“Now that the President has authorized the release of the transcript of his call with President Zelensky, we call on Biden to release the transcripts of his calls as Vice President with Ukrainian and Chinese leaders while his son was conducting shady business deals in those countries,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said.
The move comes as Joe Biden is embroiled in controversy over his son’s business dealings with foreign governments. In Ukraine, alone, the younger Biden secured a lucrative appointment to the board of directors of the country’s only independent oil and natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, in 2014.
Hunter Biden received the position, which reportedly paid as much as $83,000 per month, despite no prior background in Ukraine or the energy industry. Around the same time, Joe Biden was tapped as the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Hunter Biden’s appointment and the subsequent pressure Joe Biden placed on the Ukrainian government to fire the prosecutor investigating the company for corruption is at the center of the rush by House Democrats to impeach Trump. Many on the left claim Trump allegedly broke the law by suggesting to the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, that he probe into Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma.
Joe Biden, himself, echoed that sentiment on Wednesday during a public press conference.
“If President Trump refuses to comply with congressional requests, then he will leave Congress, in my view, no choice but to initiate impeachment,” Biden said, before refusing to address questions from reporters. “That would be a tragedy, but a tragedy of his own making.”
As Peter Schweizer, senior contributor for Breitbart News, detailed in his book — Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends — Hunter Biden profited off extraordinary deals in countries like Ukraine and China that were unavailable to regular citizens.
“Joe Biden became point person to two countries, in particular, Ukraine and in China. And in both cases, his son cashed in,” Schweizer said during a recent appearance on Fox News.