Politics

Rep. Dan Goldman mocked for claim Joe Biden ‘talked about the weather’ with Hunter’s business partners

President Biden didn’t talk business with his son’s business associates but rather discussed “the weather or whatever,” Manhattan and Brooklyn Rep. Daniel Goldman claimed Monday after former Hunter Biden partner Devon Archer admitted that the then-vice president was frequently patched in to meetings involving the now-first son.

Goldman, a member of the House Oversight Committee who was the lead attorney for Democrats’ bid to impeach then-President Donald Trump in 2019, emerged from Archer’s four-hour deposition on Capitol Hill and confirmed that the former Burisma Holdings board member had recalled “approximately 20 occasions” on which Hunter, now 53, would ask his father to say “hello” during business meetings.

“The witness was unequivocal and stated very clearly that they never discussed any business on [those] phone conversations,” the lawmaker insisted.

“There were niceties. And there was a hello. And [they] talked about the weather or whatever it was,” Goldman stressed, “but it was never any business.”

Goldman then went a step further and claimed that the number of calls involving the Biden family’s overseas colleagues was linked to Beau Biden’s death from brain cancer at age 46 in 2015.

Joe Biden with Hunter (right) and Devon Archer (left) in 2014. FOX News/Tucker Carlson Tonight

“It’s really important to remember that during this time period that we’re talking about here, Beau Biden, Hunter Biden’s brother, and President Biden’s son, became very ill with cancer and died,” Goldman said. “The witness described in vivid detail about how devastating that was to both Hunter Biden and to Joe Biden, and how their communications picked up dramatically in the aftermath.”

Critics were left gobsmacked by Goldman’s excuses for the first family.

“Who dials their father into 20 business phone calls?” asked the official Twitter account of Oversight Committee Republicans.

“All that was discussed over 20 times is how much Joe Biden loves his son,” joked Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller.

“In the eight years that my father was President of the United States I never once sat in the room with business associates and called him on the phone,” tweeted Michael Reagan, son of the 40th president. “If I had, the Democrats would have skewered me.”

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., a member of the House Oversight Committee, arrives to speak with reporters after meeting with Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner. AP
Devon Archer is battling a one-year prison sentence on charges unrelated to Hunter Biden. Getty Images

National Review writer and attorney Jeff Blehar went on an extended rant in response to Goldman’s comments, writing: “I just assume we all weren’t born into this life ten minutes ago, and understand the signal every adult man in the room knows is being sent when the principal says ‘Oh hey, here’s my dad the Vice-President.’ Including the Vice-President. But hey, let’s all play stupid suddenly.”

“‘Hello there, my father who is also the Vice President of these United States!'” Blehar went on, imagining a phone conversation between the two. “‘How do you do! Nice weather we’re having here, boy those Phillies huh, okay now as I was saying about the tranched deposits in three separate shell corporations …'”

“Also, what’s the competing narrative here, ‘eldercare abuse?’ Is it that Hunter took advantage of his doddering father and shuffled him quickly into speakerphone calls to impress people, and all the time Joe was like ‘huh, what nice Slavic friends my reformed son Hunter now has!'” Blehar continued, before adding. “BIDEN 2024: ‘Too senile to be corrupt enough to truly know what’s going on around him.'”

Devon Archer testimony: All the explosive allegations made so far

Devon Archer is a former business partner of Hunter Biden who was found guilty of trying to defraud a Native American tribe of almost $60 million in bonds and was sentenced to a year-and-a-day prison term. He testified before Congress on Monday and made several bombshell allegations. Here is what has been brought to light so far.

Former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer testified about Hunter and Joe Biden’s foreign business dealings before Congress on Monday. AP
  • Archer testified that Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings added Hunter Biden to its board because of the Biden “brand,” and paid Hunter up to $1 million a year.
  • “Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it,” Archer claimed.
  • Archer testified that Hunter Biden referred to his father Joe as “my guy” and connected him to foreign business associates.
  • Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky put pressure on Hunter Biden to build US support for getting rid of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating his company, Archer testified.
  • Joe Biden was put on speakerphone in business meetings at least 20 times, Archer testified.
  • Hunter Biden bragged that Chinese business tycoon Che Feng loved him for his “last name” and was impressed by the group of “handsome Aryan godlike men” Biden brought with him “everywhere I go” in a 2011 email.
  • Che Feng helped Hunter Biden’s firm secure favorable terms on a business partnership with Jonathan Li’s Bohai Capital and lateral launch Bohai Harvest RST, emails show.
  • “I don’t believe in lottery tickets anymore, but I do believe in the super chairman,” Hunter Biden boasted in an email. Super chairman was the first son’s nickname for Feng.
  • Archer testified that Joe Biden met with Li while he served as vice president and wrote a college recommendation letter for his daughter.
  • Archer claimed that Feng was so generous to Hunter Biden due to his family connections.

Whether Joe Biden explicitly talked business or not, Archer alleged that Hunter Biden used his father to sell the “brand,” according to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)

“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family,” Comer said in a statement.

President Biden had claimed for years to have never spoken to Hunter about his overseas business pursuits. 

However, the White House subtly changed tack recently, insisting the elder Biden “was never in business with his son.”