Biden insists he didn’t lie about son’s enterprise offers

President Biden insisted Monday that he was truthful when he claimed he had by no means spoken to his son Hunter Biden about enterprise offers regardless of the discharge of an alleged textual content message during which the primary son threatened a Chinese businessman and mentioned he was “with my father.”

“No,” Mr. Biden mentioned responding to a reporter’s query about whether or not he lied about talking with Hunter Biden about enterprise offers.

Mr. Biden’s remarks, which occurred throughout a White House occasion to advertise high-speed web entry, is the primary time the president has addressed the rising scandal.

The House Ways and Means Committee launched the textual content message final week after receiving closed-door testimony from Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisory agent who spearheaded the tax fraud investigation into Hunter Biden.

In the message, despatched in July 2017 by way of WhatsApp, Hunter Biden references his father in an obvious try and strain a Chinese businessman into sending him cash.

The youthful Biden’s try and leverage his father in that trade contradicts the White House’s declare that Mr. Biden was “not in business with his son,” a message the president has repeated.

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote to Henry Zhao, a Chinese Communist Party official.

“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and that means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman. I will make certain that 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,” the message continues.

Mr. Shapley and one other agent who labored the case have mentioned the Biden Justice Department sought to affect the probe by shifting the main target away from the president and stymied efforts to convey felony fees in opposition to Hunter.