Former President Donald Trump took his successor to task during a fiery speech at a campaign event on Saturday following a revelation last week that appears to implicate President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in another ‘pay-for-play’ scandal.
Trump was attending a “Faith & Freedom” event in Washington, D.C., when he made his remarks in response to the latest revelations from a House committee regarding the text of a WhatsApp message from Hunter to a Chinese businessman that was obtained from an IRS whistleblower. The message appeared to indicate that Joe Biden was in the same room as Hunter when he sent a message threatening the Chinese business partner.
During a press conference addressing the allegations of the Biden administration interfering with US Attorney David Weiss’s investigation into the president’s son on Thursday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) made the revelation about the IRS whistleblowers.
One of the IRS agents told Smith’s committee that in August 2020, agency investigators found messages from an iCloud search warrant, but prosecutors “denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from”.
The message investigators managed to obtain was sent via the WhatsApp platform from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017.
Smith’s committee provided a transcript of the exchange where it appears Hunter Biden name-dropped his father, Joe Biden:
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. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.
During his speech, Trump said, “Biden is the most corrupt president in the history of our country, by far. Just two days ago, a very respected IRS whistleblower — used to be very much, you remember when the Democrats used to love whistleblowers? They don’t like the whistleblowers”.
“Now reveal that Crooked Joe’ sat in a room while his son Hunter messaged a Chinese Communist party official and said to this Chinese party official, I quote, ‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.’ This is cash he’s talking about”, Trump said.
“Tell the director — and it doesn’t get reported in the newspapers — tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand”,
Trump went on. “And now means right now, it means tonight. You believe this? I didn’t know he was that tough! ‘And if I get a call or a text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me, my father right next to me’… pop. Hi, pop! ‘And every person he knows you’ll regret not following my direction’”.
“Now, can you imagine the newspaper’s not reporting this, not a word of it in any of ’em,” Trump said. “In any of them, mainstream. ‘I’m sitting here waiting for the call.’ he said, ‘with my father.’ ‘I’m sitting here with my father waiting for the call.’ In other words, send us money”.
