Democratic congressman Dan Goldman (N.Y.) appeared to contradict President Joe Biden's claim not to know anything about Hunter Biden's business dealings.
During the Wednesday hearings in the House's Hunter Biden probe, Goldman asked IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley about a lunch that Hunter Biden was holding for Chinese businessmen, during which "Joe Biden came to say hello." Goldman then quoted Shapley's testimony that, according to former Biden business associate Rob Walker, Hunter Biden "told his dad" that "I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys."
"That doesn't sound much like Joe Biden was involved in whatever Hunter Biden was doing," Goldman went on, inadvertently implying that the testimony was factual.
"It does show that [Hunter Biden] told his father he was trying to do business" with the Chinese company and that "he was talking to his father about the business," Shapley said in response.
Joe Biden has long denied knowing anything about his son's business, even as evidence mounts to the contrary. Shapley testified last month that "Hunter Biden invoked his father's name in a threatening text message" to his Chinese business partner, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Photographs from the first son's abandoned laptop show that he was at Joe Biden's home when he sent the text.
Two of Hunter Biden's business partners, including Walker, have said Joe Biden was directly involved in business negotiations with the Chinese company, CEFC China Energy.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley referred to Goldman's question as "friendly fire," writing that the New York Democrat accidentally "seemed to demolish" the president's defense.
"A few more minutes" of Goldman's questioning, Turley wrote, "and we might have had an open-and-shut case for the appointment of a special counsel."