White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday repeatedly refused to answer questions regarding a bombshell voicemail that Joe Biden left on Hunter Biden’s iPhone.
Biden called his son in 2018 to discuss a New York Times article that touched on Hunter’s dealings with CEFC, Chinese Communist Party-linked energy firm, the recently released voicemail shows.
The elder Biden appeared to be pleased with the Grey Lady’s whitewash of his son’s business dealings with CEFC’s crooked chairman Ye Jianming.
“I thought the article released online—it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times—was good,” he said in a voicemail obtained by the Daily Mail. Biden told his scandal-plagued son: “I think you’re clear.”
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Joe Biden has repeatedly denied ever being involved in discussions regarding Hunter’s overseas influence peddling operations.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy questioned Jean-Pierre about the latest damning piece of evidence that he was involved.
“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?” Doocy asked.
“First, I’ll say that what the president said stands, so if that’s what the president said that is what stands,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Doocy refused to back down. “He left a voicemail about a New York Times article concerning Hunter Biden’s business dealings and says, ‘I think you’re clear.’ How is that him not talking to his son about his overseas business dealings?” he persisted.
“From this podium, I am not going to talk about alleged materials on the laptop,” Jean-Pierre replied, seeming to dismiss the voicemail as illegitimate. “It is not happening,” she added. “I refer you to his son’s representative.”
Karine Jean-Pierre has absolutely no answer for why Joe Biden left a voicemail for Hunter in 2018 saying he wanted to talk about the Biden family business dealings in China. pic.twitter.com/HutCyvZ1DI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 5, 2022
RealClearPolitics White House reporter Phillip Wegmann later pressed the press secretary on the issue.
“You seemed to dismiss Peter’s question about his conversation with his son, Hunter Biden, with regards to his business dealings,” he said. “I’m wondering how is that silence consistent with the president’s promise to always level with the American public, because in public he says he hasn’t discussed these business dealings and then at least according to the voicemail that has been obtained by the Daily Mail and Washington Examiner, it certainly seems like he was seeking to do exactly that, have a conversation about these business dealings. Is he leveling with the American public on this?”
In her reply, Jean-Pierre seemed to suggest that she is not allowed to discuss Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“I hear your question, but what I can tell you from here standing at this podium, is that I cannot comment on any materials from the laptop, and I would refer you to the representatives of Hunter Biden. That’s what I can share with you at this podium at this time,” she said.
Karine Jean-Pierre says she “cannot comment on ANY materials from [Hunter’s] laptop," which show Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter's foreign business dealings. pic.twitter.com/4kJrpLV6O4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 5, 2022
Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, came forward in October of 2020 to blow the whistle on the Biden Family’s multi-million dollar business deal with CEFC.
In a blockbuster statement, Bobulinski, a former Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, said Hunter Biden frequently asked his dad to sign off on his influence peddling operations.
“The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China,” he wrote.
During a press conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the whistleblower revealed that he’d had an hour-long meeting with the former Vice President in May of 2017 to discuss a joint venture between the Bidens and CEFC.
Over the course of 14-months CEFC reportedly wired nearly $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle,” according to a joint report issued by the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Senate Finance Committee.
Jean Pierre’s refusal to answer questions about this issue and many others has “baffled” White House reporters, according to a recent report in Politico, and “even made some of her White House colleagues wince.”
In her first 10 briefings as press secretary, Jean-Pierre said she didn’t have the information being sought 20-plus times more than predecessor Jen Psaki in her first 10 briefings, according to a review of the transcripts by West Wing Playbook.
And while White House reporters love to complain about non-answers from communications officials, many have privately grumbled that when Jean-Pierre does have answers, they are often vague and rarely stray from the pre-written talking points prepared in the binder at the podium.
“At a certain point it wouldn’t surprise me if people started voting with their feet,” one White House reporter told Politico.
“She is so focused on not making a mistake that she doesn’t let herself speak freely,” another reporter said. “A lot of her responses end up becoming… it appears that she’s reading from a page.”
Last Thursday, 72 journalists signed a letter calling for an end to the regime’s unprecedented prescreening policies for reporters to get into Biden events.
Thursday’s letter, addressed to Jean-Pierre, requested that the White House reopen to all reporters the East Room and other large indoor event spaces that during past administrations were “open press.”
For more than a year, the White House has required reporters to RSVP for events where Biden often takes questions. Those let in are picked based on a secret criteria that officials have refused to share even with leaders of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
On Friday, neither Biden nor Jean-Pierre took questions from reporters.