Biden simply smiles while ignoring questions about Hunter, McCarthy impeachment threat

WASHINGTON — President Biden just smiled Tuesday while declining to answer questions about his alleged role in calls with his son Hunter’s business partners and about House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s looming threat of an impeachment inquiry.

“Why were you on calls with your son’s partners?” a reporter for The Post asked Biden at the end of an event on mental health in the White House East Room — in reference to Hunter’s longtime partner Devon Archer’s damning planned testimony to Congress next week.

The 80-year-old president froze with a hand still on his lectern and looked at his questioner — before flashing a smile as he walked off stage.

After mingling with guests, Biden faced a barrage of similar questions as he passed journalists lining the doorway to the East Room.

“Mr. President, McCarthy says he may start an impeachment inquiry…” Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich began as Biden walked within feet of her while exiting the room.

Upon hearing the word “impeachment,” Biden again flashed a broad smile without giving a verbal answer as he shuffled out of the room without stopping.

Moments later, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed off a question about the possible impeachment inquiry, saying she would not “get into hypotheticals” about the matter.

Biden had no public events Monday and at both of his public events Tuesday he didn’t mention the mounting scandal involving his role in his relatives’ international dealings in countries such as China and Ukraine during and after his vice presidency.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a Monday night interview on Fox News that the situation is “rising to the level of impeachment inquiry.”

While answering reporter questions Tuesday at the Capitol, McCarthy said an impeachment inquiry “allows Congress to investigate by giving Congress the full power to get the information they need.”

It’s unclear when Republicans would launch such an inquiry, which would accelerate investigations spearheaded by House panels.

Last week, two IRS agents who worked on the investigation of Hunter, 53, said that they were blocked from investigating Joe Biden’s role in international dealings, despite communications implicating him.

One such communication was an ominous text message from July 30, 2017, in which Hunter wrote to a Chinese government-linked business associate “I am sitting here with my father” and threatened retribution if an agreement was not fulfilled, immediately preceding the transfer of $5 million to Biden-linked accounts.

The Biden Justice Department has balked at House Judiciary Committee requests to interview 10 witnesses ahead of a requested deposition with Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who supervised the five-year criminal investigation of Hunter Biden.

Weiss brokered a probation-only plea deal with Hunter last month for two misdemeanor tax crimes and a gun charge felony that will be expunged after two years. The first court hearing about the deal is Wednesday.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating Biden’s role in his son Hunter and brother James’ far-flung business interests, through which panelists have reviewed Treasury Department suspicious activity reports filed by banks, and described nine Biden family members who allegedly got foreign income.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Thursday released an FBI informant file created in June 2020 that said the owner of the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma paid $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden during the elder Biden’s vice presidency. The president has sought to laugh off the accusation, saying last month, “Where’s the money?”

Hunter wrote in emails retrieved from his abandoned laptop that he had to provide “half” of his income to his father, who met with his foreign associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, including during his vice presidency.