Symone Sanders said Thursday that any attack on Hunter Biden was spreading Russian misinformation.
Sanders, a senior campaign aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, made an appearance on MSNBC just prior to the second and final presidential debate — and she told host Joy Reid that Biden had prepared for President Donald Trump to engage in personal attacks. (RELATED: ‘Don’t You Dare!’: A Self-Righteous Stelter Upbraided By 30-Year News Veteran In Testy Exchange Over Hunter Biden Emails)
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“Let me ask you, you know, those who know Donald Trump, people who know him including his niece, Mary Trump, and others, have essentially said prepare for Donald Trump to go as low as possible,” Reid began, saying that Trump’s campaign team would probably prefer that he stick to issues like the economy or taxes.
“But there’s a lot of expectations that he’ll skip that and he’ll go as brutally low and ugly and personal about Joe Biden’s family as he possibly can,” Reid continued, asking Sanders how Biden had prepared for that possibility.
“So, Joy, unfortunately, if the president decides to attack Joe Biden and his family tonight on the debate stage, it won’t be the first time that that’s happened,” Sanders replied, claiming that when Trump had attacked Hunter Biden during the first debate it hadn’t worked out well for him.
Sanders went on to say that Biden’s response — to turn to the American people and talk about how he understood what they were feeling if they had family members who struggled with addiction — had been very effective.
“So if Donald Trump would like to attack Vice President Biden’s family tonight, hmm, I don’t know how well that’s going to go over with the voters … Joe Biden, he’ll be ready,” Sanders said.
In conclusion, she pivoted to suggest that any mention of the most recent stories — alleging that Hunter Biden had leveraged the family name and traded access to his father for lucrative contracts in China — would amount to the furthering of “Russian misinformation.” (RELATED: ‘If You Have Proof Bring It Out’: Juan Williams Challenges Jesse Watters Over Alleged Hunter Biden Emails)
“Let’s just be clear, if the president decides to amplify these latest smears about the vice president and his surviving son, that is Russian misinformation. Okay?” she said. “That is what he is doing. We should call it as such. ”
Just hours prior to the debate, former Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski gave a press conference claiming that he had documents proving that Joe Biden was aware of and involved in Hunter’s business dealings with China — which he has denied.