Biden’s limited hangout

Once upon a time, President Biden’s line on Hunter Biden’s apparently corrupt business affairs was that he never discussed them. He knew nothing about them. He had nothing to do with them.

Biden now has a new line: “The president was never in business with his son.”

That requires some translation. I would guess that it means he doesn’t show up as an owner of any of the 20 or more companies created by Biden family members and business associates.

Students of Watergate may hear the new line as what we have come to know as a “limited hangout.” The next such change in the line will be a “modified limited hangout.” We’re not there yet.

White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre prefaced this iteration of the limited hangout with an awkward falsehood: “The answer is not going to change. The answer remains the same.”

More accurately, the answer hasn’t changed since June 23. Ian Sams is the spokesman for the White House Office of Legal Counsel. On June 23 Sams first floated the line that Biden hadn’t been in “business with his son.” This is how it goes:

“As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, and in this case, the White House has not been involved. As the President has said, he loves his son and is proud of him accepting responsibility for his actions and is proud of what he is doing to rebuild his life.”

NBC News quoted the Sams statement in this story. KJP is toeing the limited hangout line. We await the modified limited hangout to come.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses