White House accuses GOP of initiating probes into 'long-debunked' Hunter Biden 'conspiracy theories'

Victor Nava
New York Post
Sat, 19 Nov 2022 22:09 UTC

© AP/Evan Vucci

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio

The White House blasted House Republicans on Thursday for vowing to investigate whether President Biden is "compromised" as a result of his son Hunter's foreign business dealings.

"Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans' top priority is to go after President Biden with politically motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories," Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel's office, told The Post.

"President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on Americans' priorities, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in tackling them instead of wasting time and resources on political revenge," he added.

Comment: In other words, he's going to ignore them because they're inconveniently true.

Sams was responding to two top House Republicans, who said earlier Thursday that they would examine whether the 79-year-old president "is a security risk and whether he is compromised by foreign governments" in connection to his eldest son's "shady" overseas business deals.

Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who will respectively head the House Judiciary and Oversight committees next year, announced that probing the Biden family will be a priority in the next Congress.

"Our investigation is about Joe Biden," Comer said. "Was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden's business deals and is he compromised? That's our investigation."

However, not all House Republicans appear to be on board with full-speed investigations into the Biden family.

Hunter Biden has been accused of foreign lobbying.

Long Island GOP Rep.-elect George Santos argued on Monday that lawmakers should avoid focusing on "hyperpartisan" investigations, including a potential probe into Hunter Biden's business dealings, for at least the first six months of the new Congress.

Comment: "Hey, if they go after one of us, they can go after all of us!"

"If parts of our party want to go into these investigations, that's their prerogative," Santos told Fox News this week. "I don't want to waste my time in Washington engaging in hyper-partisan issues. I want to come here to deliver results."

"We can be part of investigations, so long as it doesn't clutter and sway us from the goal, which is making Americans' lives better or not worse," Santos added.

Comment: More on Comer and Jordan's statements:

"We're not trying to prove Hunter Biden is a bad actor," Comer added. "He is."
...
"Joe Biden told the American people he had nothing to do with and never had conversations with his family about their business dealings. That was a lie," Comer said. "To be clear, Joe Biden is the 'big guy.'"
...
"Committee Republicans have identified over 50 countries the Biden family sought business in," Comer said. "On the international side of the Biden family business, the deals were often led by Hunter Biden."

Comer also said whistleblowers had described Joe Biden as "chairman of the board" of some Hunter-linked businesses and that the president had "personally participated in meetings and phone calls."

"As part of our investigation, we have evidence that the finances, credit cards, and bank accounts of Hunter and Joe Biden were commingled if not shared," the Kentucky Republican said.

"And on some accounts at least, red flags were raised by banks to the account owner or owners indicating suspicious or illegal activity."

The probes are set to focus on a slew of possible crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the US, wire fraud, tax evasion and money laundering.