Did Biden Lie About His Family's Business Schemes? Jean-Pierre Answers With Inflation (January 3, 2023)

With a new Republican House majority taking over, a reporter put the GOP’s central charge to the Biden White House in two words. “The House Oversight Committee is laying out their new investigations, and they claim to have evidence that Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family’s business schemes,” the reporter said. “Did he?” [1]

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not say yes or no. She talked about inflation. The video above shows the Jan. 3, 2023, exchange. Quotes are from the official White House transcript [1].

”Did He?”

The reporter was quoting the Republicans almost word for word. Forty-seven days earlier, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., then the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, had released an interim report titled “A President Compromised: The Biden Family Investigation” [2].

“Evidence obtained by Committee Republicans reveals Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family’s business schemes,” Comer said at the time. “The Biden family business model is built on Joe Biden’s political career and connections with Joe Biden as the ‘chairman of the board’” [2].

The interim report, Comer’s office said, “details evidence revealing how President Biden has personally participated in and benefitted from his family’s business deals; used his public positions and permitted them to be used by others to further his family’s financial interests; and is potentially susceptible to influence, blackmail, or extortion by foreign entities, including by the Chinese Communist Party” [2].

Jean-Pierre’s Answer: Inflation

“So, look, I have said this before and I’ll say it again: House Republicans promised that fighting inflation during the midterms was going to be their number one priority,” Jean-Pierre said. “That’s what they said was important to them, and that’s what they said that they wanted to do. But instead, what they’re doing is wanting to do an investigation on the President and his family” [1].

“That is their focus. They don’t want to focus on the American people and their family; they want to focus on political division,” she continued. “They want to focus on something that the American people do not want to see, as we saw from the midterm elections” [1].

Then she handed the matter to the lawyers. “Look, I’m not going to get into — you know, get into the specifics of any of the oversight here. We have a White House Counsel that’s going to — my colleagues who are going to deal with this. So I would point you to them” [1].

”Done in a Bipartisan Way”

Jean-Pierre closed by pointing to the next day’s trip. “Tomorrow, we’re going to see a — you know, a trip, an event where — that’s going to be done in a bipartisan way,” she said [1].

That event was in Covington, Kentucky, at the Brent Spence Bridge, where Biden appeared with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to promote infrastructure money. “Leader McConnell and I don’t agree on everything. In fact, we disagree on a lot of things,” Biden said. “But here’s what matters: He’s a man of his word” [3].

What Comer’s Committee Found

Comer, who took the committee’s gavel that January, followed the money [10].

The bank records: By May 2023, the committee said bank records showed “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies” [4].
The companies: It said family members and associates “created a web of over 20 companies,” most of them formed after Biden became vice president [4].
“The brand”: After Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer testified in July 2023, the committee said his testimony showed then-Vice President Biden joined his son and his business associates for dinners or by phone more than 20 times to sell “the brand” [5].

Comer’s verdict after Archer’s interview: “Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved” [6].

The White House Line

By July 2023, asked whether the president still stood behind his claim that he had never even spoken to his son about his business, Jean-Pierre said: “The answer remains the same: The President ha- — was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add” [7]. When a reporter noted two days later that this was different from Biden’s earlier claim that he had never discussed his son’s overseas business, she said: “Nothing has changed on this” [9].

By the Numbers

Over $10 million: foreign money the Oversight Committee said reached the Biden family, its associates and their companies, based on bank records [4].
Over 20: companies the committee said Biden family members and associates created [4].
Over 20: dinners and calls in which, according to the committee’s account of Archer’s testimony, then-Vice President Biden joined his son’s business associates [5].
47 days: between Comer’s interim report and this briefing [1][2].

What Happened Next

An impeachment inquiry. The House opened an impeachment inquiry in September 2023, and in August 2024 the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees issued a report arguing that Biden “participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family” [8].

A pardon. On Dec. 1, 2024, Biden pardoned his son for any offenses he “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024” [11]. HYGO News tracks that full arc, from Biden’s “lots of luck” to the pardon, on its page on the House GOP probes.

For more of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record, see the Karine Jean-Pierre record page.