For years, we’ve been hearing from President Joe Biden and his White House press team that he ‘never discussed’ any foreign business dealings with his son Hunter Biden. Bombshell reporting from Miranda Devine at the New York Post and the recently released FBI-generated FD-1023 form paint a very different story.
That new information led Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to say that Republicans may consider an impeachment inquiry of President Biden. Almost on cue, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre changed the way she answered questions about the Biden family’s business activity.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke to discuss the subtle but telling messaging update and why an impeachment inquiry may be on the way.
Updated Messaging
The more we learn about Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings, the more it appears his father played a role in the scheming. Last Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released an unclassified FBI-generated FD-1023 form that reveals that a “highly credible” confidential human source (CHS) alleges the Bidens – both Hunter and Joe – “coerced” Ukrainian executives into paying them millions of dollars. Joe would have been vice president at the time of the payment.
Additionally, we learned from Devine’s reporting that Hunter’s friend Devon Archer – who was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday before moving it to next week – is going to reveal information about business meetings he witnessed that Joe attended in person or via speakerphone when Hunter would call to introduce him to foreign partners or prospective investors.
If true, that flies in the face of what the president and his staff have always maintained when it comes to Joe’s involvement in Hunter’s work. “All along, from when he was running for president, he said, ‘I have never talked to my son or anyone in my family about their business dealings,’” Megyn noted. “And then yesterday, a shift in how the White House discussed this issue – and it was an important one.”
In the briefing room on Monday, Fox News’ Gillian Turner asked the press secretary “if the White House and president still stand behind his comment that he’s never been involved and has never even spoken to his son about his business.” Jean-Pierre answered with the following:
“I’ve been asked a million times. The answer is not going to change. The President was never in business with his son.”
– Karine Jean-Pierre, July 24, 2023
If you read it closely, you’ll notice Jean-Pierre changed the question in her answer. “She prefaced it with, ‘I’ve answered this a million times; the answer is not going to change,’ and then she changed it, materially, from ‘he’s never discussed business with his son’ to ‘he’s never been in business with his son,’” Megyn explained. “It’s an important distinction.”
The Lack of Media Attention
The media has barely covered the drip, drip, drip of information related to possible corruption by the Bidens in general, so it is unlikely anyone will challenge the White House on the updated language. “There’s been a near total blackout of the allegations against Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” Megyn said.
As Megyn explained, this is no longer just about the first son. “It’s not just Hunter Biden; it’s also whether Joe Biden was involved and possibly took a bribe as the sitting vice president, as this FBI form suggests may have happened,” she noted. “We do not know whether that’s true, but an investigative press would want to get to the bottom of it.” But “we don’t have a curious investigative press anymore,” she added.
As Cooke pointed out, The Washington Post failed to publish a single story about the two IRS whistleblowers who testified before the House Oversight Committee last Wednesday. “It wasn’t that it was buried at the back; it wasn’t that they spun the issue,” he said. “They simply refused to report on it.”
The problem, so to speak, with this story is that we still don’t know fact from fiction. “I have grown tired of having to say… that I don’t know whether this is true or not, but there’s an awful lot of smoke,” Cooke said. “Why is it that I have been giving the same answer on this as the smoke has piled up into the sky for months? Because the press doesn’t care.”
In his view, the media needs to do its job. “The time has come for the institutions in this country that have resources and expertise in investigative reporting to look into this properly, to assign four, five, 10, 15 people to determine whether or not the allegations that we have heard and the evidence that we have seen amount to something serious,” he shared. “I want to know whether there is something to this because it’s really odd how many of these little threads, when tugged at, seem to be connected to something larger.”
Possible Impeachment Inquiry
The press might not be in the investigating mood, but Congress appears to be. During an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity on Monday night, Speaker McCarthy said an impeachment inquiry is not out of the question:
“If you’re sitting in our position today, we would know none of this if Republicans had not taken the majority. We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But this is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed. I believe we will follow this all the way to the end and this is going to rise to an impeachment inquiry the way the Constitution tells us to do this. And we have to get the answers to these questions.”
– Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, July 24, 2023
Cooke supports the inquiry though warned the GOP not to put the cart before the horse. “ I would caution Republicans from getting ahead of themselves,” he said. “But if the worst version of the allegations here is true, then, of course, the President would have to resign or be impeached.”
While he said that it’s “possible that we’ve seen nefarious activity or immoral activity that doesn’t rise to that level,” the “worst version” of events potentially includes “a pay for play scheme [where] government policy was changed or a position was abused in exchange for money and that money was funneled through all manner of shell accounts and family members.” That, he emphasized, is an impeachment-level offense. “I hope they focus as much on the inquiry as the impeachment bed and make sure that it’s in that order,” he added.
Depending on what proves to be true, Megyn said impeachment may be an afterthought. “If he actually did take a bribe to change U.S. policy toward Ukraine while the sitting vice president, impeachment is the least of his problems,” she concluded. “He’s going to jail.”
You can check out Megyn’s full conversation with Cooke by tuning in to episode 594 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.