Presidential candidate Joe Biden was asked directly for the first time Friday about the report in Wednesday’s New York Post that sparked debate. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gave the New York Post a hard drive containing an April 2015 email that allegedly shows an Ukranian energy firm executive thanking Biden’s son, Hunter for “giving an opportunity” to meet the then-Vice President.
The topic of the report did not come up at Biden’s ABC Town Hall, as some media outlets questioned the authenticity and George Stephanopoulos simply ignored the elephant in the room. However, the next day CBS reporter Bo Erickson asked about it after Biden’s campaign events in Michigan, Friday evening.
Biden came back quicker than his commuter train, clearly ready with a response that appeared prepared.
“I know you’d ask it,” Biden said in a video on Erickson’s Twitter account that received about 4.4 million views. “I have no response. It’s another smear campaign, right up your alley. Those are the questions you always ask.”
The New York Post reported that Hunter Biden was allegedly paid $50,000 per month to be on the board of directors for Burisma and that the e-mail was from an adviser to Burisma. The New York Post story, blocked by Twitter and restricted by Facebook, did not report that a meeting took place.
“We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place,” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Prior to Friday, Biden has said that he has not discussed foreign business with his son. On Wednesday, his campaign released a statement that Biden, “carried out official U.S. policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing,” and that “Trump administration officials have attested to these facts under oath.”
Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly claimed only 5% of the potentially damaging information from the computer has been released.
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