On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) criticized “these lies and half-truths and things about the son of a president that are absolutely not accurate” while repeatedly claiming that saying Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer testified that Hunter Biden was peddling the “illusion of access to his father” — which are Archer’s exact words — is a “mischaracterization” of Archer’s testimony.
Co-host Boris Sanchez asked, “Garland was asked about testimony from Devon Archer. He’s a former business associate of Hunter Biden, who reportedly told Congress that the president’s son was trying to sell, the ‘illusion of access to his father,‘ [relevant quotation is on page 131 of the transcript] for instance, during phone calls with business partners. He did also say, Archer, that President Biden never actually discussed business dealings in front of him on those calls. I’m wondering, Congresswoman, aside from any legal implications, would you say that the selling of that illusion of access by a family member of a vice president or president is appropriate or ethical?”
Dean responded, “Again, Boris, I have to admit, that is a mischaracterization, as I understand it, of what Mr. Archer said. But think of what we should be doing. That’s why, in my questions with the attorney general, I focused on two areas. I would love to have focused on more. But I talked about fentanyl, and that every single day in this country, people are dying and being poisoned by fentanyl, 300 people a day. I also focused on war crimes in Ukraine. So, these lies and half-truths and things about the son of a president that are absolutely not accurate and not appropriate for the attorney general to be talking about, he has a special prosecutor doing this investigation. It’s inappropriate for the attorney general to speak about those things. We should be focused on the very serious –.”
Sanchez then cut in to ask, “I wanted to clarify something you said, Devon Archer saying to Congress that Hunter Biden was trying to sell the illusion of access to his father is a mischaracterization?”
Dean responded, “Yes, because I believe he was interviewed and he said he did nothing wrong. So, you can take that for what it’s worth. This was [an interview] that the Republican majority was trying to smoke out a witch-hunt around Hunter Biden. There is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president. That’s what we know. And what the attorney general did today was to say it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the investigations that are ongoing. Let’s face it, it was a Trump-appointed [U.S. Attorney], Mr. Weiss, who began the investigation, during the Trump administration. They have been searching for four or five years to try to find some wrongdoing. They haven’t done it. The Republicans demanded that a special counsel be appointed, Merrick Garland made him special counsel as soon as he asked for that. And now the Republicans don’t like this Trump-appointed prosecutor, because he hasn’t done more to connect some wrongdoing to the president. there’s just no evidence there, no shred of evidence.”
Sanchez concluded the interview by saying, “I will say, the reporting indicated that Archer told Congress, again, the president’s son was trying to sell the illusion of access, not actual access to the then-vice president.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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