President Joe Biden’s national security spokesman John Kirby fled the White House briefing room on Friday when asked about a WhatsApp message sent by Hunter Biden to Chinese businessman Henry Zhao, in July of 2017.
The question was about a message that was made public on Thursday in a House Ways and Means Committee testimony. It was asked by Newsmax reporter James Rosen.
Rosen began, “The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday released documents, their authenticity nowhere challenged, that included a July 2017 WhatsApp message sent by Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese Communist Party official, which stated in its entirety, and I quote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.'”
Chaos ensues in the White House briefing room after @JamesRosenTV asks Biden spokesman John Kirby about the explosive whistleblower allegations in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.
Kirby refuses to comment and walks out of the room. pic.twitter.com/YTXU8saNLi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2023
The reporter reiterated and emphasized the portion of the message in which the younger Biden said that he is “sitting here with my father.”
“So, just a couple of questions about this, first, does this not undermine the president’s claim during the 2020 campaign and the reaffirmations of that claim by his two press secretaries since then, that he never once discussed his son’s overseas business dealings with him,” Rosen asked.
“No, and I’m not going to comment further on this… let me save you some breath, if you’re going to ask about this, I am not addressing this issue from this podium, I’m just not going to do it,” Kirby said before fleeing from the briefing room.
The message was part of a testimony from Gary Shapley, a special agent with IRS criminal investigations who has worked for the agency since July 2009 and supervised the agency’s investigation into Hunter Biden.
During his testimony, Shapley said, “I am alleging, with evidence, that DOJ provided preferential treatment, slow-walked the investigation, did nothing to avoid obvious conflicts of interest in this investigation.”
The president has long maintained that he has not had any involvement in his son’s foreign business dealings.
