WH Advisers Fend Off Barrage of Hunter Biden Questions From Axios’ Mike Allen: Campaign Was ‘An Entire Impeachment Process’
White House senior adviser Anita Dunn and Deputy Chief of Staff Jennifer O’Malley Dillon fended off a barrage of questions from Axios co-founder Mike Allen about threatened investigations into Hunter Biden if Republicans take over Congress.
Recently, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) promised that investigations of President Joe Biden’s son — which he would oversee — will “ramp up” if the GOP takes the House in the midterms, and predicted they will “prevent Joe Biden from running” in 2024, just the latest congressional Republican to threaten such investigations.
At a live “Axios News Shapers” event, Allen asked both senior White House advisers about the prospect of investigations after a potential midterm defeat.
He began by asking O’Malley Dillon about staffing in the counsel’s office that has been characterized by opponents as prep for investigations of the family. Several times, she replied with variations of “I think that President Biden has been clear that he is confident that we will continue to have a Democratic House and Senate.”
Dunn added that Biden has other priorities, “to make everybody’s life better, and people in this country will judge other priorities accordingly.”
Allen zeroed in on Hunter, and asked Dunn about the potential political effect of the attention. Dunn ripped Trump for attacking Hunter in 2020, and called that campaign “an entire impeachment process”:
MIKE ALLEN: Anita, you see the — spend a lot of time with the president behind the scenes. And one investigation the Republicans have promised they’re going to spend a lot of time on is Hunter Biden, including calling accounts. What is that like for the president personally and how does it affect him for his son to be in the headlines like that?
ANITA DUNN: Oh, I think as the president has said when he’s been asked about this, now, he loves his son. His son had a horrible disease that unfortunately too many American families are familiar with. You know, the disease of addiction, that you know, Hunter has come out on the other side and is doing very well. And the president is proud of his son. And these issues were raised during the 2020 campaign in really horrible ways against him, went through an entire impeachment process because of the former president raising these issues around the president’s son. And, you know, I think voters kept their eye on priorities back then. And the president will continue to keep his eye on the priorities of the American people.
MIKE ALLEN: And do you believe that that will happen again?
ANITA DUNN: You know, I think that, as the president has said, we expect a Democratic Congress. So.
MIKE ALLEN: No, but with the president’s son in the news, do you, you were saying that voters moved on. Like, do you expect that that would be the case again?
ANITA DUNN: You know, Mike, I think that there are very few families in this country who either haven’t experienced having someone the addiction or don’t know someone who has had the disease of addiction. And, you know, the president is proud of the way his son has come out on the other side of this. And that is something that Americans understand. And they also understand who’s looking out for their priorities and who is going to be fighting for them. And that’s what the president does every day.
Both the president and First Lady Jill Biden have recently addressed the prospect of Hunter being investigated.
Watch above via Axios.
