CLAIM: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the official story about President Joe Biden’s involvement in the family business never changed and always remained the same.
VERDICT: False.
On the 2020 campaign trail, Joe Biden said, “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.”
In 2022, a reporter asked Jean-Pierre, “Why is there a voicemail of the president talking to his son about his overseas business dealings if the president has said he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings?”
“What the president said stands,” Jean-Pierre responded:
In 2022 Jean-Pierre was asked “Why is there a voicemail of the president talking to his son about his overseas business dealings if the president has said he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings?”
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) July 24, 2023
"What the President said stands," Jean-Pierre responded. pic.twitter.com/ZuixGVA9Bm
On Monday, Jean-Pierre claimed the White House’s response to if Joe Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s business affairs never changed.
“The answer is not going to change. The answer remains the same,” she said. “The president was never in business with his son”:
So we’ve gone from: “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings”…
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) July 24, 2023
To: “The president was never in business with his son.”
Big difference. Soon they will be parsing the meaning of “in business”. https://t.co/DNQ1tvn4YL pic.twitter.com/FJYPk281TX
Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times and MSNBC analyst, noted on Twitter that Jean-Pierre said Biden “‘was never in business with his son’ but does not actually say whether he was put on speakerphone when Hunter was conducting business and introduced to partners.”
In June, top House Republicans demanded the White House answer about the shift in messaging.
The White House’s changed story comes after damning revelations surfaced about Hunter Biden texting CEFC China Energy Co. associates about payment with his dad “sitting” next to him in 2017. Additional information came to light that a Ukrainian oligarch bribed Joe Biden with $5 million.
RELATED: “No!” Biden SNAPS at Reporter Asking About Involvement with Hunter’s “Shake Down” Text
C-SPANFollow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
