McCarthy alleged that while President Joe Biden may not have had direct talks with any of his son Hunter Biden's business partners, his reputation was part of the sell for Hunter.
"The business, Bill, is Joe Biden. You know, there's a lot of questions about how often did Joe, or did Joe, talk about the business with Hunter?" McCarthy said. "Was he involved in the business with Hunter? That gets the cart before the horse - the business was Joe Biden, access to Joe Biden. If there's no Joe Biden, there's no business. So, to talk about, like, did Hunter, or did Joe talk to Hunter about the business, which was actually selling to buyers the heir of association and connection to Joe Biden — I mean, it's just ridiculous. He is the business."
"There were all these government ethics rules that prevent exactly the sort of thing that went on here, and there's no way that this business could have gone on for five minutes under those circumstances, unless Biden approved of it, so he is the business."
"You write about political power as a commodity, and the impact on the public's trust. Would you expand on that?" host Dana Perino asked.
"There's a lot of talk, Dana, about did Joe Biden do something affirmative for Burisma," McCarthy said. "Like was his using of his influence to get the prosecutor who was looking into Burisma fired, was that as a result of the payments that the Burisma people were making into the Bidens? That's all very interesting, and it ought to be investigated to the ground, but the nature of the business here was Biden's political influence and the idea that it was a commodity that you can have access to."
"Not that he necessarily had to do anything affirmative," McCarthy continued, "but merely by having access to and connection to the very powerful guy, that would discourage things like the Ukrainian government or the British government taking additional steps to investigate the Burisma people, who were brandishing the fact that they had the vice president's son on their board."
"The whole idea is to be close to and connected to the power center, to discourage people who might otherwise give you a hard time. They have a euphemism for it: They call it 'understanding or navigating the regulatory environment.' But what it is, is that you know the powerful guy in government, that will encourage the — or discourage the other smaller people in government from coming after you," McCarthy concluded.
Hunter Biden's business associate Devon Archer told Congress that Biden was allegedly involved in over 20 conversations with Hunter "about their business deals." Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman said that while Hunter may have put his father on the phone with his business partners, the two only talked about "the weather."
Biden has denied any involvement with his son's dealings, saying in 2019 he has "never discussed" with Hunter "or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period." Biden doubled down, telling Fox News' Peter Doocy he has "never spoken to [his] son about his overseas business dealings." Biden again said "I don't discuss business with my son" in October 2019.
Which were the four words alleged by the headline?