A Democratic strategist was in the hot seat Thursday after “Outnumbered” co-host Kennedy called him out for dismissing the scandals surrounding President Joe Biden as “hearsay.”
The president’s son, Hunter Biden, pleaded not guilty Wednesday after Judge Maryellen Noreika refused the plea deal made between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Hunter’s legal team. Noreika raised concerns about the agreement’s “broad immunity” for charges potentially filed in the future, CNN reported. Hunter initially intended to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a probation agreement for a felony gun charge.
Co-host Harris Faulkner noted a recent op-ed by Andy McCarthy in which he alleged collusion between authorities and Hunter’s legal team. She then asked what Hunter’s plea deal fallout could mean for the president.
“Let’s talk about the politics of this, Kevin, and really what this means for the president,” Faulkner said. “Because that’s all we really care about. I mean, Hunter’s a side show, he always has been, you can Google him, go to YouTube. But what makes it matter is what Ari Fleischer told me last week — he’s just like a trove of evidence against the president: text messages, phone calls, that can tie a lot of things together in the alleged bribery scheme allegations.”
“The process is going to play out, it should play out in the public eye, and I think you have [an] administration that’s been totally transparent with regards to this situation as a surrogate for –” former Biden campaign surrogate Kevin Walling said.
“I mean, you may be a surrogate, but you clearly can see some things are not transparent,” Faulkner interjected.
“I think the proof needs to be in the pudding, not to steal a line from Governor DeSantis. We need to see the evidence. I know there’s gonna be testimony from a business partner of Hunter’s. It just can’t be this hearsay, though. The two IRS whistleblowers provided important context and contours of the situation,” Walling said. (RELATED: Hunter Biden Linked To Several Companies Seeking Delaware Government Help During Obama-Biden Era, Emails Show)
“We had first-hand information of every aspect of the investigation,” co-host Kennedy said. “This is not hearsay, this is not circumstantial evidence, these are all primary sources that they had been investigating for years. Not only have they been investigating this for years — they had been investigating other crimes and other cases, honorably, for the IRS, and knew something wasn’t right.”
“They became whistleblowers, they knew there would be retribution, they knew there would be retaliation, but they had to say something, because they realize there are two tiers of justice,” she continued. “There are two tiers of justice, and someone who has been under investigation for five years, miraculously only emerges with two misdemeanors. Mr. Misdemeanor is seeing this whole thing fall apart because the outer circle is cratering around him. Devon Archer, he’s going to talk, because he’s going to prison. These whistleblowers, they are legit and should not be maligned or diminished.”
Hunter’s proposed plea deal showed the president’s son earned millions from foreign sources in 2017, Politico first reported. The White House has repeatedly said the president was not involved in his son’s dealings, nor did they ever discuss such matters. Biden said in 2019 he had never “spoken” to Hunter about the younger Biden’s business affairs, and the White House has stated repeatedly since June that the president was not “in business” with his son. Hunter allegedly threatened a Chinese business associate via text in 2017, telling the associate he was sitting with his father at the time the message was sent, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley testified in late May.