On Thursday, CNN’s Jake Tapper must have been longing for the days when former boss Jeff Zucker would command him through his earpiece as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) laid out the evidence of President Joe Biden’s alleged corruption on The Lead. Throughout the over nine-minute long (9:30) interview Comer repeatedly countered Tapper’s defense of the President and pointed out the payments CNN refused to acknowledge.
It had been over 24 hours since Comer’s committee released their memo and CNN had spent most of Thursday ignoring it. Between the 10 hours between the start of CNN This Morning and the first hour of The Lead, CNN spent over an hour (1 hour, 1 minute, and 16 seconds) talking about the different Trump legal cases going on and almost 40 minutes (39 minutes and 43 seconds) on ProPublica’s latest hit piece against Justice Clarence Thomas.
The second hour of The Lead (the 5 p.m. time slot) was the first time the Comer memo was mentioned all day, 24 hours from the last time it was mentioned (also on The Lead).
From the get-go, Tapper took up the ridiculous position that despite the fact that the rest of the Biden family was “sleazy” (his word), somehow the patriarch was not touched by it. “So, the memo alleges payments to Biden family members and associates but not to President Biden himself,” he proclaimed after introducing the Congressman.
“So, let's pause it for the sake of argument that Hunter Biden is sleazy and the President's relatives tried to profit off the Biden family brand, something CNN has reported on. What's new in this memo?” Tapper asked as if Biden was somehow separate from the rest of his family, which went against his storied persona.
Comer detailed how the Oversight Committee uncovered the fact that most of the money transfers to the Bidens happened when Joe was VP. And as if it was some kind of twisted defense, Tapper openly argued that that was how things worked in Washington D.C. Comer then called out the liberal media for using that excuse:
TAPPER: So, it's assumptions, it's how the world works. But again, just looking for evidence because we're talking about impeachment here. I don't see any evidence of any crime. And frankly, that is how the world works in Washington, D.C.
(…)
COMER: A lot of the President's defenders, especially in the media, say that, well, influence peddling is a cottage industry in Washington. Well, it needs to change. But let's just go back to not having any evidence of wrongdoing with Joe Biden.
“So, our investigation's already turned up a lot of information. Now, I think even though there may not be any curiosity by my friends at CNN I think there's curiosity but a majority of Americans that say wait a minute,” Comer called out CNN directly.
Things got more interesting as Comer drew attention to how Biden’s granddaughter received money transfers from a Romanian national shortly after Biden had left the country. He also called out the Department of Justice for refusing to help them in their investigation and Biden’s lawyers for intimidating witnesses. This left Tapper spinning his wheels and squirming as evidenced by his weak attempts to push back and use of one-word answers (Click “expand”):
COMER: This money from the Bidens happened while Joe Biden was vice president, while he was flying to those countries. He flew -- days after he left Romania his family started receiving wires from a corrupt Romanian foreign national. Days. Like four days after he left. Including his granddaughter. What's his granddaughter doing getting a wire from a Romanian foreign national?
TAPPER: But --
COMER: This is why we're investigating. And it's difficult, Jake. It's very difficult. The Biden attorneys are obstructing. They're intimidating witnesses. The DOJ will not cooperate with us. The FBI will not cooperate with us. The IRS will not cooperate with us. Thank God we had whistleblowers from the IRS testify in our committee that they were told to stand down by the DOJ --
TAPPER: Sir, we had one of those -- we this one of those whistleblowers on the show, actually. We did an interview with him. I don't know if you knew that.
COMER: Well, CNN's done a better job than a lot. That's why I'm on the show. And I'm a fan, Jake, and I'm working with you on this. But I do think there's certainly overwhelming evidence. Remember, there's a text message from Hunter Biden to his daughter complaining he had to give his father half his salary. So, we've gone through a lot of bank records --
TAPPER: Yeah.
COMER: We haven't gone through all the bank records. But look, we've caught Joe Biden in several lies including that he never spoke with any of these corrupt people from these foreign countries that sent his family money. He had dinner with some of them, we found out in this.
TAPPER: Right.
Tapper seemed so desperate to end the interview that he responded “right, right” to Comer saying “There was clearly violations of the foreign agent registration act and money laundering.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
August 10, 2023
5:29:39 p.m. EasternJAKE TAPPER: Continuing with our politics lead, we turn to the push by House Republicans to, at the very least, open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released a memo stating, quote, "The committee has now identified over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates," end quote. The memo does not show any of that money going directly to Joe Biden, the president.
We are joined now by the committee's chairman, remember Congressman James Comer of Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, thanks for joining us.
So, the memo alleges payments to Biden family members and associates but not to President Biden himself. Your committee memo anticipates any pushback on this by stating, quote, "President Biden's defenders purport a weak defense by asserting the committee must show payments directly to the president to show corruption," unquote. But respectfully, sir, you're the one who said repeatedly that this investigation is about President Joe Biden, not his family, over and over.
(…)
5:30:45 p.m. Eastern
TAPPER: So, let's pause it for the sake of argument that Hunter Biden is sleazy and the President's relatives tried to profit off the Biden family brand, something CNN has reported on. What's new in this memo?
REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Well, before we released the memo we interviewed Devon Archer who is one of the associates who was partial owner of one of the shell companies that the Bidens were receiving money from foreign nationals and then laundering it into Biden bank accounts. So, the associate Devon archer testified that Joe Biden had, in fact, spoken to over 20 of the people who had wired the money to the Biden family members.
Now, the reason that's important, Jake, is because the President said repeatedly he had never spoken to his son or anyone affiliated with his son in their business dealings. Now, there is no business. So what the business was according to Devon Archer was they were taking money from foreign nationals and they were marketing Joe Biden. Joe Biden was the brand.
So, that is the first associate that came in, implicated Joe Biden as being the reason they were getting this money. And the money is from bad people. The money is from people who are either incarcerated in the countries where they wired the money or they are on the flee from being incarcerated. So, we're concerned the President is compromised because of the millions of dollars his family's received.
And remember, Jake, the president hasn't been truthful with the American people. First of all, he said he never communicated with these people. Devon Archer testified that he has. 20 times, in fact, at least. And then he said that none of this money ever happened while he was vice president. We didn't know this at the beginning of the investigation, but what we know now is the overwhelming majority of the wire transfers happened while Joe Biden was vice president and they happened days after he left those countries with foreign aid checks or talking about foreign aid. So, there is a pattern here that should concern every American with respect to corruption in the White House.
TAPPER: Well, you definitely have made a case that the people who are around President Biden in terms of the lobbyists and his son Hunter have trafficked on that connection to the then-Vice President, now-President. But I haven’t yet seen any evidence that the President did anything wrong.
(…)
5:34:03 p.m. Eastern
TAPPER: So, it's assumptions, it's how the world works. But again, just looking for evidence because we're talking about impeachment here. I don't see any evidence of any crime. And frankly, that is how the world works in Washington, D.C.
(…)
COMER: A lot of the President's defenders, especially in the media, say that, well, influence peddling is a cottage industry in Washington. Well, it needs to change. But let's just go back to not having any evidence of wrongdoing with Joe Biden. Look, six bank --
TAPPER: By Joe Biden! Not -- certainly there's sleaze there. I'm saying what did the President do wrong, though?
COMER: Well, remember, when we started this investigation at the end of January, that's when I got subpoena power, the last week of January, the narrative was the laptop was Russian disinformation, Joe Biden's family never received money from China, Joe Biden's family never received any of this money while he was vice president, and Joe Biden never communicated with any of the people that sent his family this money. All four of those things have been proven false.
So, our investigation's already turned up a lot of information. Now, I think even though there may not be any curiosity by my friends at CNN I think there's curiosity but a majority of Americans that say wait a minute, you're telling me--
TAPPER: I'm very curious about it, sir. I'm very curious about it. That's why I'm reading your reports. That's why I have you on the show. I just haven't seen --
COMER: And I appreciate that.
TAPPER: Look, here's -- the memo insists that even though there's no evidence Biden personally took the money it doesn't get him off the hook. It calls the argument, quote, “a hollow claim, no other American would be afforded if their family members accepted foreign payments or bribes,” unquote. Fair enough.
(…)
5:36:49 p.m. Eastern
COMER: This money from the Bidens happened while Joe Biden was vice president, while he was flying to those countries. He flew -- days after he left Romania his family started receiving wires from a corrupt Romanian foreign national. Days. Like four days after he left. Including his granddaughter. What's his granddaughter doing getting a wire from a Romanian foreign national?
TAPPER: But --
COMER: This is why we're investigating. And it's difficult, Jake. It's very difficult. The Biden attorneys are obstructing. They're intimidating witnesses. The DOJ will not cooperate with us. The FBI will not cooperate with us. The IRS will not cooperate with us. Thank God we had whistleblowers from the IRS testify in our committee that they were told to stand down by the DOJ --
TAPPER: Sir, we had one of those -- we this one of those whistleblowers on the show, actually. We did interview with him. I don't know if you knew that.
COMER: Well, CNN's done a better job than a lot. That's why I'm on the show. And I'm a fan, Jake, and I'm working with you on this. But I do think there's certainly overwhelming evidence. Remember, there's a text message from Hunter Biden to his daughter complaining he had to give his father half his salary. So, we've gone through a lot of bank records --
TAPPER: Yeah.
COMER: We haven't gone through all the bank records. But look, we've caught Joe Biden in several lies including that he never spoke with any of these corrupt people from these foreign countries that sent his family money. He had dinner with some of them, we found out in this.
TAPPER: Right.
COMER: So, there's I think more than enough evidence to show that Joe Biden hasn't been truthful with the American people and he had knowledge that his family was money laundering. He had to. Do you think the treasury --
TAPPER: Well, money laundering – Look, if there's evidence of money laundering, which is a crime, which is a federal crime, then obviously your committee should report it to the FBI and the Justice Department.
COMER: That’s why the judge kicked it out. That's one of the reasons the Delaware judge rejected the sweetheart plea deal.
TAPPER: The judge --
COMER: There was clearly violations of the foreign agent registration act and money laundering.
TAPPER: Right. Right. Republican Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky. You'll come back when you've got more to talk about.
COMER: We'll work with you, Jake. Thanks for having me.
