2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden’s claim that he “never” spoke with his son Hunter about his business dealings in Ukraine appears to conflict with comments his son provided to the New Yorker in July.
On Saturday, the former vice president vehemently denied any wrongdoing amid scrutiny of his son’s ties to an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. During his time in the Obama administration, the elder Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire its top prosecutor, who was investigating the oligarch who owned the energy company for which his son was a board member.
Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy in Iowa Saturday that he “never” spoke to his son about any overseas business dealings. Speaking with the New Yorker in July, however, the presidential candidate’s son admitted that he and his father did speak about his business in Ukraine “just once.”
“Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do'” the younger Biden said at the time.
Doocy rehashed the conflict during a later appearance on Fox News Saturday.
“[Biden’s answer] is not consistent entirely with the interview that Hunter Biden gave in July to the New Yorker, where they say Hunter recalled his father discussed the Ukraine oil company at the heart of the issue with him ‘just once,’” he said. “So the former vice president says they never talked; his son told the New Yorker a couple of months before this really blew up they did talk once.”
According to reports, President Trump repeatedly urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden’s son during a July phone call. Their call is reportedly the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has so far refused to hand over to Congress.
