Joe Biden Told Milken Conference ‘I’m Not Running’ in 2020: I’d Be ‘in a Walker’

Former Vice President Joe Biden told the Milken Conference in May 2017 — where he allegedly met Tony Bobulinski about a business deal with a major Chinese company — that he would not run for president in 2020. He’d be “in a walker,” he joked.

Biden’s remarks have resurfaced due to Bobulinski’s account of meeting with him at the request Biden’s brother, James, and son, Hunter. According to Bobulinski, they met for an hour to discuss the deal before Biden spoke at the Milken event.

Last year, Biden told reporters as he campaigned for president: “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.” Bobulinski’s account suggests Biden’s denial was a lie.

The China deal was to have been a joint venture with the CEFC China Energy Co. on the one hand, and the “Biden family” on the other, according to Bobulinski, in a joint venture called Sinohawk, with Bobulinski agreeing to take the CEO role.

Bobulinski confirmed in a press statement last week and to Tucker Carlson of Fox News Tuesday evening that 10% of the equity was to be held for the “big guy” — Joe Biden himself — as described in an email reported by the New York Post.

But the deal fell through, and $5 million that was to have funded the business went to an account controlled by Hunter Biden, Bobulinski said last Thursday. He added that he only found out about it through a recent U.S. Senate investigation.

The deal fell through, Bobulinski explained, because of a separate deal by CEFC — the “capitalistic side of the Chinese government” — to buy 14% of Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, which was then facing sanctions from the U.S.

That exposed corruption in CEFC and began the company’s downfall, Bobulinski learned. He also learned that Hunter Biden was acting as the “personal attorney” of CEFC chair Ye Jianming during the company’s effort to buy a stake in Rosneft.

At the Milken conference, Biden spoke about cancer research and his work with the Biden Cancer Initiative. That non-profit closed shortly thereafter, however, having spent two-thirds of its budget on salaries instead of actual research into cancer.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.