MSNBC host said perhaps Joe Biden was 'not attentive'
MSNBC invokes Beau Biden to defend President Biden in Hunter investigation
MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire brought up President Biden's deceased son, Beau Biden, while discussing investigations into Hunter Biden and whether the president played a role in his foreign business dealings.
MSNBC figures and Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., both invoked the death of President Biden's son Beau on Tuesday while attempting to provide "context" to his conduct related to his other son Hunter Biden's business deals.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Devon Archer confirmed in his appearance Monday that President Biden "lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son's business dealings and was not involved."
Comer's comments came after Archer, a former business associate and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing.
Archer said Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell "the brand."
DEVON ARCHER: HUNTER BIDEN, BURISMA EXECS ‘CALLED DC’ TO GET UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR FIRED
Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, arrives for closed-door testimony with the House Oversight Committee at the O'Neill House Office Building July 31, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Goldman, who recently insisted Biden has "restored the integrity of the Department of Justice," appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, where he asserted Joe and Hunter Biden "never discussed business" on the phone calls, instead sticking to "greetings," "niceties" and "small talk."
"Morning Joe" regular Jonathan Lemire then asked what the calls were "specifically about" if they weren't about overseas business dealings.
"Let's put this in context. Beau Biden got very sick in 2015. He died in the spring of 2015, which was right in the middle when Devon Archer had his business dealings with Hunter Biden. At that point, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden began to speak every day because they were devastated by Beau's death," Goldman said.
House Oversight Committee member Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) talks to reporters as he departs the O'Neill House Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 31, 2023 in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))
"They spoke every day. The witness testified that over his 10-year relationship with Hunter Biden, there may be approximately 20 times when… Hunter Biden would put his father, at a dinner, not at a business meeting, a dinner he was having, if he happened to get a hold of his father, and would ask his father to say hello to whoever was at the table," Goldman continued. "That was essentially the extent of it."
Goldman then said, "Joe Biden was doing nothing to benefit his son."
In a separate conversation with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, Lemire said that while Democrats admit Biden's conduct related to Hunter was "pretty unseemly," it doesn't necessarily make it illegal.
MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire discusses the GOP investigation of the Bidens on Aug. 1, 2023. (MSNBC / Screenshot)
"It also means that we don't know the role that then Vice President Biden may have played and it seems like, no, they haven't proven that he had anything to do with it, they haven't proven that he profited from this at all. Yeah, maybe he's guilty of turning a blind eye to some of his son's behavior," he said.
WITNESS SAYS JOE BIDEN TALKED TO HUNTER’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES; GOP SEES SMOKING GUN, DEMS DOWNPLAY
Lemire then said the whole conversation should be put in "context," noting that Beau Biden was terminally ill and died around that time.
"Perhaps [Biden] was not as attentive to what he should have been here, but again there has simply been no evidence… no evidence at all that he was profiting from this or that either of them committed a crime when it came to this," he said.
Beau Biden died from glioblastoma in May 2015 at Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Md.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
