Jill rescues Joe from impeachment questions: The first lady gets President’s attention – as he ignores reporters trying to get his first reaction to the Republican inquiry into Hunter’s deals

Jill Biden saved Joe Biden from answering questions about the impeachment inquiry against him, and caught his attention when he was asked about the subject in his first public appearance since the investigation was announced.

The Bidens called a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss their Cancer Moonshot initiative. At the end, as reporters shouted about Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to start the impeachment trial, Jill Biden leaned over to whisper to the president and reached out to touch his arm.

Biden turned to his wife as aides removed reporters from the Cabinet room. The focus of the meeting was on Bidens’ Cancer Moonshot project, their initiative “to end cancer as we know it.”

Jill Biden praised her husband’s work in this area, telling him Wednesday, “You’ve done good things, Joe.”

The White House, meanwhile, has doubled down on its defense of the president, dismissing the impeachment inquiry as “baseless,” setting up a war room to fight the probe and sending a memo to news organizations to better investigate the Republican encourage motives.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday called it a “baseless investigation that Republicans in the House of Representatives can’t even really defend themselves.”

Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings since they took control of the House of Representatives in January. They are investigating whether Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time, personally benefited from Hunter’s work and whether the Biden family used Joe Biden’s official office for personal gain.

President Biden has denied any involvement in his son’s business affairs.

Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that President Biden has done nothing wrong.

“Republicans in Congress have been investigating the president all year, that’s what they’ve spent, and turned up without any evidence that he did anything. I mean, that’s what we heard over and over again, from almost a clear year-long investigation, and that’s because the president has done nothing wrong,” she said in her daily news conference.

The administration is also going on the offensive to address specific charges against the president.

Earlier Wednesday, the White House said Biden only called to check in on Hunter while he was talking to his son’s business associates.

“This is part of the right’s disinformation machine to confuse people about what the truth is,” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, told CNN on Wednesday morning.

“The truth is that the president, as he has said publicly for years, calls his family every day to check in.” He calls his son every day to check in. He calls his other family members to check on them. He loves them. It’s a close-knit family.’

Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee in testimony this summer that Hunter had put his father on speakerphone about 20 times during business meetings.

At the time of Archer’s closed-door testimony, Democrats in the room said Archer described the calls as personal.

“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately twenty times over the course of the ten-year relationship, Hunter may have spoken to his father on the phone with a number of different people, and they never once discussed any matters.” also spoken. business,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York said at the time.

“The way he described it, it was all casual conversations, nice things, the weather, what was going on. There was no discussion whatsoever about the business dealings that Hunter had,” Goldman noted.

But Republican Chairman James Comer of Kentucky said Archer testified that Joe Biden “attended Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business associates more than 20 times in person or on loudspeaker” and was put on the phone to “brand.” to sell.

Comer said the testimony shows that “Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge of or involvement in his son’s business dealings. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family.”

The White House has accused Republicans of electoral politics with its impeachment inquiry.

‘The president has been in politics for a long time. “I think he’s seen a lot of malarkey, as he would say, along the way, but this could take the cake,” Sams told CNN. “He focuses on issues that are important to the American people.”

Sams is a point of contact in the White House when it comes to refuting Republican accusations against the president and his family. He is part of a war room set up in the White House counsel’s office specifically to handle Republican Party investigations.

He noted that Biden, who was vice president at the time, called Hunter to check in as the family was also dealing with the illness of Beau Biden, the president’s late son. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.

“He reached out to Hunter at a particularly difficult time, a time when the family was experiencing the illness of Hunter’s brother Beau. Of course the president reports,” Sams said.

Hunter Biden has spoken about how he relapsed into drug and alcohol addiction after his brother died. The Biden family later staged an intervention to get him back into rehab.

It was during that intervention that Joe Biden told his son, “I don’t know what else to do.” I am so afraid. Tell me what I should do.’

Hunter Biden got sober, but his business dealings are under investigation by Republicans in the House of Representatives. And the impeachment inquiry — the first step in the impeachment process — will examine whether President Biden personally benefited from his son’s work.

Biden has said he had nothing to do with Hunter’s business deals.

Speaker McCarthy, under intense pressure from his party’s conservative wing and facing threats to his chairmanship, declared on Tuesday that the investigation would begin.

“Republicans in the House of Representatives have uncovered serious and credible allegations about President Biden’s conduct,” McCarthy said. “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.”

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. And they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives. “That is why today I am directing our committee in the House of Representatives to open a formal investigation into the impeachment of President Joe Biden,” he noted.

Republicans have accused Biden and his family of making millions from shell companies that Hunter Biden founded when his father was vice president. Hunter had business deals with an energy company in Ukraine, acquired a stake in a private equity firm in China, and consulted for a Romanian real estate magnate.

The president has denied any involvement in his son’s business activities. But Republicans allege that at least a dozen Biden family members could be involved in a scheme to benefit financially from Biden’s public office.

House investigators are expected to issue subpoenas for the banking records of the president and his family. The Republican Party also claims that Biden had at least 24 conversations with Hunter’s business associates and was referred to as “the big guy” by Hunter’s business associates. And they say Joe Biden used pseudonyms to discuss his activities regarding Ukraine with his son Hunter during his time as vice president.

It is estimated that Hunter raked in $40 million through 20 shell companies and fake accounts created when Joe Biden was vice president.