The fallout from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement that Republicans would be launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden continues. Unfortunately for White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, she is in the unenviable position of having to defend her boss.
During the latest press conference, Jean-Pierre suffered a barrage of questions about the inquiry and allegations that the president had numerous interactions with his son’s shady foreign business partners.
A New York Post reporter first asked about a memo sent from the White House to members of the activist media telling them to “ramp up their scrutiny” of Republicans over the impeachment effort.
“On the memo that was sent out to news organizations about covering this impeachment inquiry, can you give us some background into the decision-making of why you thought sending that was necessary?” the reporter asked.
Jean-Pierre responded:
I’m going to leave that to the White House counsel from my colleague who sent that memo just laid out really specifically as to how we see this process has moved forward, how there is no evidence. It’s not even coming from us. It’s coming from Republicans in Congress. We’ve been very clear about that. I actually think that memo lays out in pretty good detail of why we felt it was important to put that out. I’m just not going to get beyond what my colleague has shared with all of you.
It was when the journalist asked about Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in Hunter’s business dealings that Jean-Pierre decided she’d had enough.
“Why did the president interact with so many of his son’s foreign business associates?” the reporter asked. “More than half the voters told CNN they believed the president was involved and he lied.”
While the journalist asked the question, Jean-Pierre responded: “And with that folks…” and then flew out of the room like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Karine Jean-Pierre bolts faster than a cat at bath time when asked about President Joe Biden’s interactions with Hunter’s business partners.
“I’m just not going to get beyond what my colleague has shared with all of you. And with that folks…” pic.twitter.com/YQUfasHIOW
— Jeff Charles, An Awful Pundit🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) September 13, 2023
The abrupt conclusion to the press conference underscores the position the White House is in at the moment. While the president and his merry band of Democrats in Congress have been quite insistent in their claims that Republicans have no evidence of wrongdoing on President Biden’s part, it is clear they are concerned about what might come out during the investigation.
Indeed, there might be plenty of stones to look under as there is growing evidence that Joe Biden had conversations with business figures from countries like Ukraine, Mexico, Russia, China, and Kazakhstan.
As for impeachment, there is no real chance the president will be removed from office unless you happen to buy into my pie-in-the-sky speculation that Democrats might agree with the idea just to get him out of the White House. Barring that, the Democrats control the Senate, so any effort is likely doomed to failure.
Nevertheless, the information that could be uncovered might be politically damaging enough to the elder Biden that it could negatively affect his chances of winning re-election in 2024.
