President Joe Biden is facing increasing pressure to answer questions — in detail — about his son Hunter Biden and a concerning text message that has been unearthed as the questions surrounding the latter’s business activities are growing more serious.
And on Wednesday, the president bristled at a reporter who asked him about it, just days after Karine Jean-Pierre, his press secretary, was inundated with questions on the topic at her daily news briefing.
Mr Biden was boarding Marine One as he began a trip to Chicago to tout his administration’s economic record when a reporter questioned him about one message in which the younger Biden appears to directly put pressure on an individual named Henry Zhao to resolve an unknown matter — while explicitly naming his father as an interested party.
“I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge, that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,” reads the text in part.
The president was asked as he boarded the craft “[h]ow involved were you in your son’s Chinese shakedown text message”, as well as whether he was actually sitting next to his son when the 30, July 2017 message was sent. The White House has not provided the president’s whereabouts for the date in question, as part of the total refusal of the president’s team to engage with questions on the issue.
“No, I wasn’t,” the president responded.
The reporter tried again: “Were you involved?”
“No!” responded Mr Biden, sternly.
It was a moment that underscored Mr Biden’s increasing frustration with questions over the personal activities of his son, who is not involved in politics but nevertheless has drawn the president into his storm of controversy thanks to persistent allegations of his father’s involvement in supposed illicit international business schemes.
On the face of it, the text is a serious problem for the president given that Mr Biden has long denied any involvement or even having discussions with his son about his foreign business ventures. The younger Biden’s service on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, in particular has drawn allegations of influence peddling.
Hunter’s lawyers have addressed the specific text in question, explaining that it was supposedly sent amidst the haze of drug addiction and should not be taken as factually sound.
“The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client. Any verifiable words or actions of my client, in the midst of a horrible addiction, are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family,” said Hunter Biden’s attorney.
The president’s son is currently charged with making a false statement on an application for a firearm as well as not paying more than $1m in taxes; an official with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), America’s tax agency, has come forward to allege that the Justice Department declined or refused to consider more serious charges.
