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Tag: Joe Biden
Who will win the legal battle over drug prices?
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What we know about Devon Archer’s testimony on Hunter Biden
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Hunter Biden’s former business partner tells Congress about Joe Biden’s calls
Washington — Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, gave details about calls between President Biden and his son as he testified to the House Oversight Committee about his business dealings with the younger Biden on Monday. But Republicans and Democrats were at odds over the meaning of those calls.
Archer served alongside Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, beginning in 2014, while the elder Biden was vice president and deeply involved in Ukraine policy. Archer is widely believed to have facilitated Hunter Biden’s entry onto Burisma’s board.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said Archer testified that the value of adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board was “the brand” and said that the then-vice president brought the most value to “the brand.” He also testified that Burisma would have gone under if not for “the brand,” Comer said, adding that the elder Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand.”
But Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman disputed the GOP characterization of Archer’s interview, telling reporters the witness was “very, very consistent that none of those conversations ever had to do with any business dealings or transactions.”
“They were purely what he called casual conversation,” he said.
Archer also testified that Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone during business meetings more than 20 times, according to Comer.
Archer’s interview is the latest development in the GOP’s investigations into Hunter Biden as Republicans seek to tie his controversial business dealings to the president.
The White House has repeatedly denied that the president had any involvement in his son’s business ventures. White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement Monday that House Republicans’ “own witnesses appear to be debunking their allegations.”
“It appears that the House Republicans’ own much-hyped witness today testified that he never heard of President Biden discussing business with his son or his son’s associates, or doing anything wrong,” he said. “House Republicans keep promising bombshell evidence to support their ridiculous attacks against the President, but time after time, they keep failing to produce any.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said Archer’s testimony confirms that he “did not involve his father in, nor did his father assist him in, his business” and that any interaction between Hunter Biden’s father and business associates “was simply to exchange small talk.”
“Like the relatives of Donald Trump, Senators Ron Johnson, and Ted Cruz, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and many others, family members of elected representatives meet people and may get opportunities because of those connections,” Lowell’s statement said. “Congress would be busy investigating many of their own if that’s their idea of an offense.”
Goldman told reporters that there’s “no connection” between the president and his son’s business dealings.
“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day,” Goldman said. “And approximately 20 times over the course of [a] 10-year relationship, Hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people, and they never once spoke about any business dealings. As he described it, it was all casual conversation, niceties, the weather, ‘what’s going on?’ There wasn’t a single conversation about any of the business dealings that Hunter had.”
Goldman said Archer testified that what Hunter Biden was selling was the illusion of access to his father.
“His exact testimony was that Hunter Biden possessed actual experience and contacts in Washington, D.C., in the political sphere, in the lobbying sphere, in the executive branch, and that that is ultimately what he was providing to Burisma,” Goldman said. “But in return for pressure from Burisma, he had to give the illusion — he used that term, the illusion — of access to his father, and he tried to get credit for things that he, that Mr. Archer testified Hunter had nothing to do with, such as when Vice President Biden went to Ukraine on his own.”
The Oversight Committee has sought information on any possible involvement from the president in his son’s foreign business deals for months. In a letter to Archer’s attorney in June, Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said Archer “played a significant role in the Biden family’s business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine.”
“Additionally, while undertaking these ventures with the Biden family, your client met with then-Vice President Biden on multiple occasions, including in the White House,” the letter said.
Archer was convicted in 2018 of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud for his role in a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe and multiple pension funds. His conviction was overturned later that year, and U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abram wrote in her decision she was “left with an unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged.”
The conviction was later reinstated by a federal appeals court. Archer lost an appeal of that decision. He has not yet been sentenced.
The Justice Department asked a judge over the weekend to set a surrender date, prompting Republicans to accuse the Biden administration of seeking to prevent Archer from testifying. The Justice Department wrote in a subsequent court filing that it “does not request (and has never requested) that the defendant surrender before his congressional testimony.”
— Ellis Kim and Michael Kaplan contributed reporting.
Catherine Herridge
GOP presidential race for Iowa begins to take shape
The Republican presidential race for Iowa is heating up, as 13 Republican candidates descended on Iowa over the weekend for the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines this weekend.
Former President Donald Trump continues to hold a commanding double-digit lead in national and statewide polls. On Friday night, he shared the stage in Iowa with opponents who hesitated to criticize him while they attempted to pitch themselves as an alternative. He signaled Monday that he’s not inclined to attend the first Republican debate later this month, posting on social media, “Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President!”
Still, Trump arrived at the dinner facing growing legal pressure, after prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office added two new charges against him for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
His main challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in the midst of a campaign reboot and now aims to visit all of Iowa’s 99 counties in hopes of shoring up support.
Here are some of the highlights from the weekend and the dinner.
DeSantis hits Iowa trail on bus tour
The Florida governor kicked off a bus tour in Iowa on Thursday organized by the Never Back Down super PAC, which is supporting his candidacy. His campaign, which recently laid off more than three dozen staffers, was not involved in the organization of the bus tour, a move that raised questions because super PACs are banned from coordinating with campaigns. DeSantis made six stops in rural Iowa Thursday and Friday leading up to the Lincoln Dinner.
He’s visiting local businesses, nonprofits, and a county fair, and he also took questions from reporters at multiple stops, including an interview with CBS News senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe.
DeSantis attempted to thread the needle between criticizing former President Trump for his ongoing legal problems and accusing Democrats in government of politically targeting Trump.
In Chariton, he told CBS News that voters would decide if Trump’s legal issues are disqualifying. And in Lamoni, he talked about modifying his campaign from one with more limited personal contact with voters to a more traditional model.
“You have an intent about what you want to see, when it’s not there, you adjust and go forward. DeSantis said in Lamoni. “At the end of the day, it’s really about the voters here, and I think they’re more interested in what the future holds and that’s what we focus on.”
DeSantis campaign “reboot” overshadowed by uproar over Florida Black history education standards
Desantis’ attempts at a new beginning for his campaign were overshadowed by his arguments with Sen.Tim Scott and others about new curriculum standards that advise teachers in Florida to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Scott, who has climbed to third place behind Trump and DeSantis in some polls in Iowa, is the Senate’s only Black Republican. His message for DeSantis and Florida Republicans is that “there is no silver lining” to slavery. “What slavery was really about [was] separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives,” Scott added. “I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for president — would appreciate that.”
He suggested that DeSantis might want to reconsider how Black history is taught. “Listen, people have bad days,” Scott said Friday. “Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
But if DeSantis has any regrets about the curriculum, he’s not showing any. “The reason our country has struggled is because D.C. Republicans all too often accept false narratives, accept lies that are perpetrated by the Left,” DeSantis told reporters Friday.
Trump continues to focus attacks on DeSantis
Former President Donald Trump spent most of his 10 minutes at the Lincoln Dinner attacking DeSantis. “You don’t want to take a chance on that one,” Trump said, referring to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctus” in his speech.
He downplayed the criminal charges he faces, telling the crowd that “if I weren’t running, I would have nobody coming after me.””
Trump walked out to the country group Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America,” instead of his standard walk-out song, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA. As he took the stage, the lyrics “one could end up going to prison, one just might be president” blared over the speaker system.
The former president received the loudest cheers and the biggest standing ovation of any of the 13 candidates on stage Friday night.
Asa Hutchinson and Will Hurd attack Trump for his legal issues
Only two candidates directly criticized Trump for his legal woes at the reception — former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Rep. Will Hurd.
“Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison,” Hurd said as the crowd of more than 1,200 booed him. “Listen, I know the truth is hard,” he added as the booing continued.
Hutchinson took a softer tone, warning that Trump could be on trial next January, when the Iowa caucuses are set to take place.
“As it stands right now, you will be voting in Iowa while multiple criminal cases are pending against former President Trump,” Hutchinson said to muted applause.
Notably absent from the Lincoln Dinner was another Trump critic: former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who has said he is focusing on the early GOP primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Vivek Ramaswamy proposes gutting five federal agencies
Thirty-seven-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy, pitching himself as a political outsider, called for a revolution against the federal government. Ramaswamy said if he’s elected he’ll shut down a number of federal agencies that he claims are corrupt, resulting in “mass firings.”
“From the Department of Education, to the FBI, to the IRS, to the ATF, to the CDC, we will not just reform them, we will shut them down,” Ramaswamy said to loud applause. He added that other GOP candidates who are pledging to fix federal agencies are making a false promise.
“This is not a moment for reform. I don’t stand for reform, I stand for revolution,” Ramswamy said.
Biden’s acknowledgement of 4-year-old grandchild mentioned by candidates
President Joe Biden publicly acknowledged son Hunter Biden’s 4-year-old daughter and his granddaughter, Navy, for the first time Friday. Republican candidates took the opportunity to criticize the president’s handling of the situation.
Haley quipped on Friday night that “how many grandchildren do you have?” could be a potential question on a mental competency test for lawmakers that she has been pitching since the launch of her campaign. “I don’t know what y’all are laughing at,” Haley said, with the crowd chuckling. Hutchinson, who spoke right after Haley, picked up on the joke and told the crowd that he knows exactly how many grandkids he has.
Former Vice President Mike Pence told reporters on Saturday that it’s “important” President Biden publicly acknowledged his grandchild. “I welcome the President acknowledging his little granddaughter,” Pence said.
Pence calls for transgender ban in military, 15-week federal abortion ban
The former vice president said he’d reinstate a ban on transgender Americans who want to serve in the military. At the dinner, he said he wants to “end political correctness at the Pentagon.”
The Trump administration banned transgender individuals from serving in the military in 2017. President Biden reversed the decision in his first week in office.
Pence argued that having transgender military personnel “erodes unit cohesion” and “affects recruitment.” Pence also said “the time has come” for the federal government to adopt a 15-week abortion ban.
Where Biden’s economic approval stands, according to CBS News polling
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Former Hunter Biden business partner speaks to House panel
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The economy’s long, hot, and uncertain summer — CBS News poll
Never mind the macro stats for the U.S. economy — Americans are hot, and very much still bothered by high prices, with recent reports about GDP growth, stock gains and a strong labor market apparently providing cold comfort. At least so far.
Instead, most describe the economy as “uncertain,” along with calling it bad, and “struggling” but not improved.
So, there’s plenty of lagging skepticism hanging over the public mind after the turmoil of recent years and months of chatter about a potential recession. Almost no one is calling things “stable.”
And that’s the case despite relatively good feelings about the job market and job security.
It’s not just whether one has a job, but what your wages can buy you. Most of those working say their pay is not keeping pace with rising prices.
(The fact that most report paying higher electric bills and being forced indoors because of the heat waves may not be helping the mood either.)
And even if the rate of inflation is slowing, those price hikes have clearly left their mark.
Prices are the No. 1 reason people give when asked why they call the economy bad and the top reason given when they describe their personal financial situation as bad.
Interest rates, they report, are also a net-negative on their collective finances. Most, particularly younger people, report it’s harder to buy a home than for past generations.
It all adds up to most feeling they’re staying in place financially but not getting ahead, and many feeling that they’re falling behind and concerned about affording things now and retirement in the longer term.
As is often the case in these kinds of economic evaluations, what people see at the cashier, or on their bills on the kitchen table, has outsized impact over more abstract economic reports.
Here’s that comparison: Americans rate the job market stronger than the overall economy.
But many still think the prices they pay are going up. That may comport with macro data saying inflation is slowing, but price increases are still felt by consumers.
The politics
There’s plenty of skepticism about help from political leaders on either side of the aisle. It isn’t good news for the president.
Most tie both the U.S. economy and their own personal finances (whether bad or good) at least in part to President Biden’s policies — an important measure of both macro and micro connection — and also to that very immediate measure of prices.
Most don’t think the Biden administration is lowering inflation — another key metric to watch in coming months — and even fewer think congressional Republicans are taking actions that do so, with many not sure what they’ve done. As they campaigned to win the House majority last year, most voters expected them to prioritize dealing with inflation.
(For that matter, just a quarter think the Federal Reserve’s actions have lowered inflation, though many aren’t sure what it has done.)
The race to define “Bidenomics”
This also shows the challenge President Biden faces in his latest push to get the public to reconsider not just how they think of the economy, which few describe as “rebounding,” but also the meaning of the phrase his administration has coined, “Bidenomics.”
It is not, as of yet, a widely known term by any means.
The people who say they have heard something of the term skew Republican right now. So, to many of them, it looks more pejorative. Half say they equate it with “higher inflation” and even “tax increases,” by far the top two items chosen. That said, most independents also mention those two items first.
Democrats are more positive — if they’ve heard of it — so the president at least has some building blocks with his base. Majorities of them say it means “job creation,” “investment in infrastructure,” “help for the poor” and “the middle class” to them.
But this economic mood keeps weighing on the president’s overall numbers. His handling of the economy is as low as it’s been, along with his overall approval rating too, which has been hovering in the low-40s range for more than a year, now down to 40%.
The heat
And yes, most Americans are hot and report feeling unusually high temperatures in all regions of the country, as much of the U.S. sets heat records. They’re coping by staying inside more, keeping their kids inside and economically, one impact they report is having to pay higher electric bills.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,181 U.S. adult residents interviewed between July 26-28, 2023. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as past vote. The margin of error is ±3.2 points.
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Face The Nation: Hutchinson, Kashkari, Nirenberg
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President acknowledges Hunter Biden’s 4-year-old daughter as his granddaughter, and Republicans take jabs
President Biden publicly acknowledged Hunter Biden’s 4-year-old daughter, Navy, as his granddaughter, for the first time on Friday, and several Republican presidential candidates took jabs at his handling of the situation.
In a statement Friday, the president said he and the first lady “only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.” Navy Roberts was born to Lunden Roberts, an Arkansas woman who filed a paternity suit against Hunter Biden in 2019. A DNA test confirmed he is the father and he agreed to pay child support.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of heir daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” the president said in the statement. “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
The statement was first given to People Magazine. It followed criticism of the president, particularly from Republicans, for not acknowledging Hunter Biden’s youngest daughter as a grandchild. The president also has six older grandchildren.
“When you go and you talk about family values … it’s odd that he wouldn’t acknowledge one of his grandchildren,” GOP candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Another GOP contender, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, quipped at an Iowa political dinner Friday, “I want you to know I know how many grandchildren I have.”
Hunter Biden settled his child support case in Arkansas last month, reaching an agreement with the child’s mother after a long dispute. Hunter Biden previously agreed to pay $20,000 a month in child support, but it’s not clear what the new monthly amount is, as it’s redacted. The agreement does say Hunter Biden will give some of his paintings to his daughter for her to do with them as she pleases.
The president’s recognition comes after Hunter Biden earlier this week pleaded not guilty to two tax charges when a tentative plea agreement between his attorneys and federal prosecutors crumbled in court. The president and first lady have expressed support for their son as he seeks to rebuild his life from drug addiction, while declining to comment on his criminal charges directly.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the day of Hunter Biden’s initial court appearance in Delaware that “the president, the first lady, they love their son and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life.”
—Weijia Jiang contributed to this report
Kathryn Watson
