Hunter Biden’s speech from the Capitol grounds on Wednesday further watered down a denial of wrongdoing that has evolved significantly since President Joe Biden first addressed the issue.
“My father was not financially involved in my business,” Hunter Biden said moments before defying a congressional subpoena from House Republicans who had hoped to interview the first son behind closed doors Wednesday.
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The carefully worded statement appeared to account for new evidence that suggests Joe Biden did participate in aspects of his son’s business dealings, both during his vice presidency and in the years after.
The Bidens’ allies have also gradually shifted from defending Hunter Biden’s qualifications for his foreign deals as a Yale-educated attorney and private citizen to arguing his conduct during that time is beyond criticism because he was crippled by addiction.
Here is how the Biden family’s story has shifted.
“First of all, I have never discussed with my son, or my brother, or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses, period. What I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between the personal and private, and the government.” — August 2019 campaign trail remarks
Joe Biden brushed off questions about Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals early in the 2020 race by claiming to have never had so much as a conversation about them with his son.
Emails, witness testimony, Air Force Two flight records, and White House visitor logs have all since undermined Joe Biden’s claim that an “absolute wall” existed between his government work and his family’s business.
Hunter Biden’s business associates flew on Air Force Two, visited Joe Biden in the White House dozens of times, and corresponded directly with the vice president over email.
Joe Biden intervened on behalf of Hunter Biden’s associates; for example, Joe Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for the son of a Chinese business partner in 2017.
The president and his allies have stopped referring to a “wall” that separated Joe Biden from Hunter Biden’s foreign network since evidence to contradict the claim emerged.
“I don’t know what he was doing. I know he was on the board, I found out he was on the board after he was on the board, and that was it.” — Joe Biden, December 2019 interview
Then-candidate Joe Biden faced questions about his son’s work with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma months before the leaks from Hunter Biden’s laptop began.
Joe Biden told Axios in an interview during the Democratic primary that as vice president, he knew nothing about what Hunter Biden was doing for Burisma when his son was earning millions of dollars from the company as a board member.
Significant evidence has emerged to contradict this statement from Joe Biden. For example, Joe Biden attended a private dinner in April 2015 with Hunter Biden and a Burisma executive.
Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s former business partners, said Hunter Biden frequently put his father on speakerphone with Burisma executives.
And messages from Hunter Biden’s laptop showed that Joe Biden used email aliases to coordinate schedules with his son on days when Ukrainian policy was on his agenda as vice president.
“My son has not made money in terms of this thing you’re talking about — what are you talking about, China — I have not had — the only guy who made money from China is this guy. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.” — Joe Biden, October 2020 presidential debate
During the final debate of the 2020 race, Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of profiting off Chinese interests as he denied that Hunter Biden ever earned income from Chinese sources.
Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden, in reality earned millions of dollars from Chinese government-linked entities starting shortly after Joe Biden left office in 2017. Their business relationship with the Chinese company CEFC began while Joe Biden was vice president.
Prosecutors cited Hunter Biden’s income from China in their nine-count indictment against Hunter Biden in California. The House Oversight Committee has also released financial records detailing the flow of Chinese money through companies owned by Hunter Biden and James Biden.
In his speech at the Capitol on Wednesday, Hunter Biden acknowledged that he did business in China. He instead denied only that his father was involved in the Chinese dealings.
“As we have said many times before, the president was not in business with his son.” — White House spokesman Ian Sams, June 2023 statement
The White House narrowed Joe Biden’s denial significantly this summer after two IRS agents who spent years working on the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden came forward with records that included a 2017 message in which Hunter Biden threatened a Chinese businessman with retribution from his powerful father.
The new statement marked a subtle but significant departure from the claim that Joe Biden was oblivious to his son’s dealings. It left room to allow for the new evidence that the president had extensive knowledge of what his son was doing overseas while he was vice president.
“My father was not financially involved in my business — not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.” — Hunter Biden, December 2023 remarks at the Capitol
Hunter Biden’s latest statement left even further room for evidence of Joe Biden’s role in the business network to emerge without contradicting the latest party line.
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The first son’s insertion of the word “financially” implied that short of evidence Joe Biden owned stake in or drew income directly from Hunter Biden’s businesses, his father should not face consequences.
Of course, the new denial reflects a materially different claim than the ones Joe Biden made during the campaign, and it raises questions about whether the White House could shift its story even further as House Republicans prepare to advance an impeachment inquiry.
