EDITOR’S NOTE, February 16, 2024: On February 15, Justice Department Counsel David Weiss indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov on two felony counts of making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record for claims made to the bureau. The charges are in relation to June 2020 FD-1023 form alleging President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden received a combined $10 million in a bribery scheme involving the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
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Tuesday’s Morning Joe brought on Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY) and teed him up to play defense for President Biden after the explosive Devon Archer testimony on the Biden family’s bribery and corruption. They contradicted Republican claims about the content of the closed-door testimony, and denied any wrongdoing by then Vice President Biden.
Goldman claimed that despite Archer’s testimony that Biden was on the phone at Hunter’s business meetings, he was only there to merely “say hello” and that Hunter was only selling the “illusion” of influence, as if that didn’t benefit him.
Host Willie Geist began the segment noting that Archer testified that Hunter Biden did put Joe Biden on the phone for business associates, but “never once” actually spoke about business. He then had Goldman deliver the Democrat narrative about the testimony.
Goldman responded:
And notwithstanding whatever alleged smoke chairman Comer says there is, the witness testimony was very clear. That Joe Biden was not involved in any of their business dealings. Joe Biden got no benefit. Joe Biden did not change any of his actions for the benefit of his son in any way, shape or form. That Hunter may have, quote, “promoted the illusion of influence on his father,” but the witness was very clear, that it was an illusion. There was no actual influence.
The problem was, that what Goldman said completely contradicted the Republican statements about Archer’s testimony. Goldman and Comer both were in the room listening to Archer’s testimony, but it was a closed-door session and the transcript currently had not been released to the public. If it is, one side will be exposed as liars.
Goldman further eroded the credibility of the Morning Joe panel by giving absolutely outrageous explanations for how his claims were true. He correctly argued that the question was not if Hunter Biden did something wrong, but if Joe Biden was connected to it.
To clear Joe Biden, he gave a downright crazy excuse for why Biden’s phone conversations with Hunter’s business associates were a nothingburger: “They said hello. It was, you know, greetings, niceties, salutations, small talk. It was never involved with business.”
So Hunter met with business officials that he would get millions of dollars from, had his father, the Vice President, join in on the phone, just to say hello? In what crazy world would that be plausible?
It got better though. According to Goldman, Joe Biden had no idea what was going on because he was distracted by his son Beau Biden’s death, and the calls were just him grieving with his son. “So, let's put this in context. Beau Biden got very sick in early 2015. He died in the spring of 2015. Which was right in the middle when Devon Archer had his business dealings with Hunter Biden,” he explained.
So we were supposed to believe the father who let his son become a crackhead all of a sudden started to care, and they got over Beau’s death by talking with Hunter’s business associates? And Joe Biden didn’t even know who he was talking to.
The segment concluded with Geist and Mike Barnicle leading Goldman on about how even if Hunter did commit crimes, the statute of limitations had run out so he couldn’t be charged.
MSNBC’s interview with Goldman showed that the network was so invested in persuading viewers to accept Democrat talking points and protecting President Biden, they were willing to air the most ridiculous excuses for Biden and expect people to deny common sense and reality.
MSNBC’s disastrous damage control was sponsored by 4imprint and Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
08/01/23
7:45 AM ET
(…)
WILLIE GEIST: Republican chair of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, and chair of the Oversight Committee, James Comer, on Fox News last night saying they have more evidence, not shown yet, that President Biden was involved in his son's financial dealings. Yesterday the House Oversight Committee held a closed door interview with Hunter Biden's former business partner, Devon Archer. Archer testified Hunter would put his father on the phone in front of business associates, but they, quote, “never once” spoke about any business dealings.
Now, Republicans are using this to say Joe Biden was the, quote, “brand” his son was selling around the world. Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York, he’s a member of the Oversight Committee and was a part of yesterday's closed door meeting. Congressman, it’s great to have you here. So,
DAN GOLDMAN: Good to be here.
GEIST: Help us understand who Devon Archer is what he did and did not say yesterday in that meeting.
GOLDMAN: Devon Archer was Hunter Biden's business partner from 2013 to 2016, and he was most notably on the board of Burisma with Hunter Biden. And what he testified to yesterday completely absolves Joe Biden of any involvement in Hunter Biden's business world.
And notwithstanding whatever alleged smoke chairman Comer says there is, the witness testimony was very clear. That Joe Biden was not involved in any of their business dealings. Joe Biden got no benefit. Joe Biden did not change any of his actions for the benefit of his son in any way, shape or form. That Hunter may have, quote, “promoted the illusion of influence on his father,” but the witness was very clear, that it was an illusion. There was no actual influence.
And what the evidence has shown in this entire investigation, and we keep getting witness after witness who is supposed to be their star witness showing Joe Biden's connection, is the only evidence is that Joe Biden's official actions ran counter to Hunter Biden's interests. Because this witness said that Burisma believed they had the corrupt prosecutor general, and I quote what the witness said, "under control," and they did not want him to be fired because that might mean that Burisma and their president would get investigated.
And yet, that's exactly what Joe Biden advocated. That's the only evidence at all of Joe Biden's connection in any way, shape or form to Hunter Biden's business interests. And it begs the question, Hunter Biden has been investigated by the Department of Justice, by a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for five years. Including all of the foreign business accounts, foreign bank records, FARA violations, all that stuff.
That's the Department of Justice's job. Congress's job is not to investigate a private citizen. Congress's job is oversight, and there must be some legislative purpose. And that has to connect to Joe Biden. And there is simply no connection.
GEIST: So as you said, and we've said many times on this show, there's just been no evidence. They've been given a ton of opportunities. James Comer last night on Hannity, "What's the evidence?" Hannity pleading with him, "Show us something. Well, all we have is smoke. We don’t have any fire.” And you would think, as you say over many years, they would have found it by now. Do you concede at least though, that it was unseemly for Hunter Biden, that it appears at least 20 times, there was a business deal who just so happened to call up the Vice President of the United States and to suggest, "Look, I'm connected to people in high places, you want me on this deal."
GOLDMAN: Well, I think Hunter Biden has been open about that himself, that he certainly used his last name to benefit his own business interests. The question, though, is not whether Hunter Biden did anything. The question is whether he did have any influence or did have any access, and whether the President did anything to benefit Hunter. And what was clear in the testimony yesterday is that there were many instances where Hunter Biden tried to get, quote, “credit” for something that his father did completely independent. And the key here is that they never discussed business.
They said hello. It was, you know, greetings, niceties, salutations, small talk. It was never involved with business. And even Devon Archer said that Joe Biden has no business experience, wouldn't have known what Hunter was doing and was not interested nor ever discussed it. And so not only did, was there no evidence connecting Joe Biden, but the allegations that Joe Biden lied are wrong as well. He didn't discuss Hunter's business dealings.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: So Congressman, just because it's a source of so much smoke, could you just with specifics tell us these phone calls that were a matter of such discussion yesterday? What were they about? What would then Vice President Biden say in these conversations? You know, walk us through what happened.
GOLDMAN: Right. So, let's put this in context. Beau Biden got very sick in early 2015. He died in the spring of 2015. Which was right in the middle when Devon Archer had his business dealings with Hunter Biden. At that point, Joe Biden and Hunter Biden began to speak every day because they were both devastated by Beau's death.
They spoke every day. The witness testified that over his ten-year relationship with Hunter Biden there may be approximately 20 times when in one of those conversations, Hunter Biden would put his father at a dinner, not at a business meeting, at a dinner that he was having if he happened to get ahold of his father, and would ask his father to say hello to whoever was at the table.
And that was essentially the extent of it. They didn’t, it was unclear and the witness testified -- it's not me saying this. The witness testified that a lot of times, most of the time Joe didn't even know who the people were at the dinner table.
So this was just simply -- this may have been Hunter's effort to say, “Hey, this is the Vice President, this is my dad.” But the critical part here for Congress – and that's what we have to make sure we understand -- is that Joe Biden was doing nothing to benefit his son.
MIKE BARNICLE: So, Congressman, you used the word illusion a couple of minutes ago. And Congressman Comer, your chairman, appears to be trying to sell the illusion of deep criminality that Hunter Biden participated in. You also framed up the time period of 2013 through 2016, 2017, at which point Hunter Biden is alleged to have taken money from Ukraine and other countries where he was trying to do business with and that's the source of some charges, that he failed to register with the State Department – or whoever you register --
GOLDMEN: No. The charges are not that -- he has not been charged with that.
BARNICLE: I know. But if he were to be charged by this committee or Justice Department, isn't the statute of limitations on all of those things- isn’t it five years? Wouldn't it be over with? They couldn’t do anything.
GOLDMAN: It's possible. But this was a five-year investigation. I’m sure at some point they would have been able to charge him if that were the case.
(…)
7:54 AM ET
GEIST: And what about the Biden bribery tapes we’ve heard about?
GOLDMAN: Right. So, the one critical part yesterday is that the witness completely debunked those allegations. He was on the board of Burisma, all of the money that Hunter Biden got from Burisma, being a member of the board, went through their joint company and he said there was no bribe of either Hunter or Joe.
GEIST: Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee, who was in the room yesterday for that interview, Congressman Dan Goldman of New York. Congressman, good to see you. Thanks so much.
(…)
