The mounting evidence that Joe Biden was involved in his son Hunter’s overseas business deals is so compelling that even The New York Times is questioning the president’s continued denials.
Peter Baker, White House correspondent for The Gray Lady, said Wednesday night that the administration’s argument that Biden had nothing to do with his son’s foreign dealings is getting “harder to make.”
He said Biden could rather view the scandals as his son overcoming his addiction — as he did during the 2020 campaign.
But he insisted that has now changed — and the White House can no longer use the “wayward son” defense as more allegations surface and his son faces further charges following the sensational unraveling of his plea deal.
It comes just days before Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer will testify in Congress that Joe was on speakerphone when his son was on business.
Baker’s comments to MSNBC came hours after Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart” deal fell apart dramatically, leaving him open to charges over the millions in revenue he received from doing business with China and Ukraine.
The New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker said Wednesday night that the administration’s argument that Biden had nothing to do with his son’s foreign dealings is getting “harder to make.”
It is also a sign that the tide is turning with the networks and publications that are mainly fawning over Biden in their coverage.
When the First Son learned that the deal did not include blanket immunity for his other foreign business dealings, he reversed course, pleaded “not guilty” and left the courtroom with no deal on the table.
Joe Biden and his team have maintained he was unaware of and, more importantly, uninvolved in his son’s lucrative foreign affairs business — and his communications team has repeatedly dismissed questions about whether the president’s influence contributed to the enrichment of his family.
They also subtly changed their story. First, Biden and aides said he never spoke to Hunter about the foreign deals.
Then they said he was never “in business” with his troubled son.
Baker suggested that Biden’s comments about his son are now so far-fetched that they remind him of lies former President Donald Trump has spread.
And Trump’s comments, Baker noted, have caused many to no longer want to see him in the White House in 2024.
During the general debate with Biden in 2020, Trump accused Hunter of “making a fortune” in Ukraine and China.
“That’s just not right,” the Democratic nominee shot back at the time. “My son, like many people you know back home, had a drug problem. He caught up. He fixed it. He’s been working on it. And I am proud of him. I am proud of my son.’
However, the developments in the multiple cases against Hunter show that he made at least tens of millions from multi-country foreign business deals.
He received transfers from at least China, Ukraine and Romania.
Baker’s comments to MSNBC came hours after Hunter Biden’s ‘sweetheart’ plea deal fell apart dramatically, leaving him open to charges over the millions he received from China and Ukraine
Biden has maintained he was never involved in his son’s business deals. The couple was pictured together last month
Baker said when Biden was a candidate he could describe it “successfully in 2020” as a success story of his adult son overcoming drug addiction.
“Obviously now I think it’s been a few years since then, more information has come out, more allegations have been made,” he said in the MSNBC interview on Wednesday. “Of course many of these have not yet been proven or confirmed.”
The New York Times correspondent added, “I think that story is a bit harder to make at this point, and so for President Biden it’s not just about a wayward son, but about whether he has anything to do himself.” had to do with the death of his wayward son. business transactions, and that is still an open question.’
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has repeatedly claimed that he has evidence of Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.
The White House has also been silent on Hunter Biden since it was revealed last month that he reached a “sweetheart” deal with federal prosecutors.
But the agreement that was spectacularly unraveled on Wednesday now places the president in the library.