‘McCarthy Keeps Lying!’ Biden Spox Lashes Out Over Fox News Interview on Hunter Probe

A spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office Ian Sams took exception with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) appearance on Fox News to level accusations at President Joe Biden over his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

Speaker McCarthy was a guest on Monday night’s edition of Fox News Channel’s Hannity, during which he spent about nine minutes discussing his investigations, his plans to begin an impeachment inquiry, and the bribery allegations undergirding them.

On Tuesday, Sams lashed out at McCarthy in an email sent to Mediaite, accusing him of “lying.”

“Last night on Hannity, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continued lying about President Biden – making a series of plainly false, widely debunked attacks in order to promote the extreme far right’s baseless impeachment stunt that even some members of McCarthy’s own caucus are expressing concerns about pursuing,” Sams wrote.

The statement included a memo detailing three “lies” by McCarthy:

• LIE #1: McCarthy told Hannity the Biden Administration has obstructed House Republican investigations, claiming: “We have found time and again we haven’t seen anything like this since the Nixon Administration, using their government to shut down any time we had a question.”
• LIE #2: McCarthy claimed that a “Russian oligarch” gave the Bidens $3.5 million.
• LIE #3: McCarthy continued to spread lies about the FBI FD-1023 form that House Republicans have been obsessed with for months and released a few weeks ago, claiming: “The FBI didn’t act on their information from their informant.”

In the memo, Sams offers citations to knock down McCarthy’s claims, including news articles and fact-checks published by news outlets like CNN and NBC News, the full transcript of committee witness Devon Archer’s testimony, and statements by McCarthy’s own partners in the investigations.

The full memo:

Last night on Hannity, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continued lying about President Biden – making a series of plainly false, widely debunked attacks in order to promote the extreme far right’s baseless impeachment stunt that even some members of McCarthy’s own caucus are expressing concerns about pursuing.

Let’s take a look:

LIE #1: McCarthy told Hannity the Biden Administration has obstructed House Republican investigations, claiming: “We have found time and again we haven’t seen anything like this since the Nixon Administration, using their government to shut down any time we had a question.”

• Even beyond the bizarre comparison of President Biden to Richard Nixon, this is demonstrably false – by House Republicans’ own statements. The Treasury Department provided the House Oversight Committee access to records. Oversight Committee Chairman Jamie Comer boasted about getting this access – and even stood outside of the Treasury Department to record a Twitter video talking about how he and other members had just reviewed the materials. In addition, the FBI provided the House Oversight Committee an FBI form it had sought access to, as well as a briefing to discuss it – even stressing that “this is an extraordinary accommodation given the sensitivities surrounding FBI FD-1023s, which contain raw, unverified reporting from confidential human sources” and “protecting this type of information from wider disclosure is imperative to the FBI’s ability to recruit sources and ensure the safety of the source or others mentioned in the reporting” – and the Justice Department has offered its officials to come in and testify on these issues, among many other examples of the Administration cooperating with even their wild goose chase investigations.
• In fact, it’s House Republicans who have repeatedly refused to release evidence that doesn’t fit their selectively tailored false narratives – including continuing to hide the transcript of a former FBI witness whose testimony apparently contradicted some key House Republican claims.

LIE #2: McCarthy claimed that a “Russian oligarch” gave the Bidens $3.5 million.

• Despite the efforts of Senate Republicans and former President Trump to spread this claim during the 2020 campaign, it has been debunked. The Washington Post fact checked this claim years ago and found it false – describing the “flimsiness of the allegation” and stating that the Post “found no evidence that Hunter Biden was part of those transactions.” In fact, House Republicans’ own witness Devon Archer testified last week that Hunter “was not involved” in this transaction.

LIE #3: McCarthy continued to spread lies about the FBI FD-1023 form that House Republicans have been obsessed with for months and released a few weeks ago, claiming: “The FBI didn’t act on their information from their informant.”

• This false bribery claim has repeatedly been debunked – including by the House Republicans’ own witness, Devon Archer – and independent reporting has refuted the claim it was not investigated. The Washington Post reported a story in June headlined: “FBI had reviewed, closed inquiry into Biden claims at center of Hill fight.” In it, the Post found the allegation “was reviewed by the FBI at the time and was found to not be supported by facts, and the investigation was subsequently dropped with the Trump Justice Department’s sign-off.” Similarly, CNN reported “the FBI and prosecutors who previously reviewed the information couldn’t corroborate the claims,” and NBC News reported, “the FBI and a U.S. attorney appointed by then-President Donald Trump reviewed the allegation when it was made in 2020” and “the bribery allegation was not substantiated.” And, of course, the source of the allegation in the form, the former Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, has himself denied any contact or involvement with President Biden, and House Republicans’ own witness, Devon Archer, testified that he disagreed with the allegations in the form.

Speaker McCarthy has decided the truth should not get in the way of his and House Republicans’ relentless efforts to smear the President. They are prioritizing their own extreme, far-right political agenda at the expense of focusing on what really matters to the American people: working together to make their lives better. Instead of pursuing this shameless and baseless impeachment stunt, House Republicans and Speaker McCarthy should join the President to work on continuing to bring down inflation and lower costs, create jobs, and grow the economy. That is, after all, what the American people sent their leaders to Washington to do.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s Hannity.

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