After scores of COVID and Ukraine questions at Thursday’s White House press briefing, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann and Daily Mail’s Rob Crilly finally broke through with one question each about Hunter Biden in light of a New York Times report that all but admitted the New York Post was right in 2020 about his infamous laptop. Unfortunately, Press Secretary Jen Psaki wanted nothing to do with them.
The only two Hunter questions came in the last four and a half minutes of the 54-minute briefing with Wegmann having come first (with this being his second of two briefing questions):
The New York Times has authenticated e-mails that appear to have come from a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden in Delaware. The President previously said that the New York Post story about this was “a bunch of garbage” and that it was “a Russian plant.” Does he stand by that assessment?
Of course, Psaki wasn’t interested, saying Wegmann should speak “to the Department of Justice and also to Hunter Biden’s representatives” because “[h]e doesn’t work in the government.”
Imagine if/when a Trump press secretary said that about Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump amid four years of the liberal media obsessing over their business careers? The horror!
Crilly came up a few minutes later as the penultimate reporter called on. He waited until his last question as well to follow up.
This time, he all but denounced her evasiveness given what she herself has said about the Post’s bombshells: “[Y]ou were asked about Hunter Biden’s laptop. You also, in October 2020, dismissed it as ‘Russian disinformation.’ Do you stand by that assessment?”
Despite her own on-the-record comments (and thus it being of even more relevance for her to answer), Psaki still ducked with her line about the Justice Department and Hunter’s lawyers because she’s merely “a spokesperson for the United States” which the First Son “doesn’t work for.”
Seeing as how The Times had to take the State Department to court in order to be granted the release of emails from Froggy Bottom pertaining to the President’s son, it again would have been pertinent for Psaki to reply.
But alas, when you have the five liberal broadcast and cable networks that want nothing to do with Hunter (other than to defend him as if he’s still a child), it’s easy to brush actual questions aside.
To see the relevant briefing transcript from March 17, click “expand.”
White House press briefing [via CBSN]
March 17, 2022
3:45 p.m. EasternPHILIP WEGMANN: And then one more. The New York Times has authenticated e-mails that appear to have come from a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden in Delaware. The President previously said that the New York Post story about this was “a bunch of garbage” and that it was “a Russian plant.” Does he stand by that assessment?
PSAKI: I’d point you to the Department of Justice and also to Hunter Biden’s representatives. He doesn’t work in the government.
(....)
3:48:31 p.m.
16 secondsROB CRILLY: And if I may, you were asked about Hunter Biden’s laptop. You also, in October 2020, dismissed it as “Russian disinformation.” Do you stand by that assessment?
PSAKI: Again, I’d point to the Department of Justice and Hunter Biden’s representatives. I’m a spokesperson for the United States. He doesn’t work for the United States.
