CNN’s Dana Bash: Hunter Biden Special Counsel ‘Could Keep Republicans at Bay’

CNN anchor Dana Bash said Friday on “Inside Politics” that Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing David Weiss as a special counsel overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden could keep Republicans investigating the president’s son “at bay.”

Partial transcript as follows:

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ: But again, this is a White House that is facing increasing pressure when it comes to the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Republicans have slammed the president over all of these legal proceedings and also so much has flirted with a potential impeachment inquiry. Now when that has come up, the White House stance has been that it is baseless, that they’re, that the focus should be in Congress on the American people. But all of this to say that that criticism is ramping up. This will likely fuel Republicans and what they have to say about Hunter Biden and these ongoing legal proceedings.

BASH: Okay, Priscilla, thank you so much. She says it could fuel the Republicans, but the other way to look at it is that it could keep Republicans at bay, because now that you do have a special counsel, which a lot of Republicans were were calling for A and B, I can’t remember if it was a Paula or one of our other reporters make. Maybe you guys are making this point. That while the special counsel is doing his work he can’t, he’s unlikely to talk to to Congress, and it’s unlikely for them to get the information that they’re working toward.

LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: And that’s what’s so interesting, is that prior to this announcement, the Justice Department was saying that Weiss was prepared to testify to Congress as early as September, as soon as they came back from their August recess, that the Justice Department said that they wanted to do that specifically because of the assertions that Republican lawmakers were making about his authority to conduct his wide investigation into Hunter Biden and that he wanted to directly address that as soon as he could, assuming that they had a deal that would have gone forward with Hunter Biden’s lawyers that fell apart. But we were still expecting him to potentially testify to Congress when they came back. Now, as you said, Dana, that’s probably not going to happen for quite some time as he has these new authorities.

Follow Pam Key On Twitter @pamkeyNEN