Former Vice President Joe Biden said no one told him about the appearance of conflict of interest when his son Hunter took a job at Ukrainian gas company Burisma during his interview with NPR.
Morning Edition host Rachel Martin grilled Biden on his campaign bus in Iowa, which features a "No Malarkey" slogan," asking that even if his son did nothing wrong, how could Biden not know about the appearance of conflict of interest if people raised the alarm over the issue at the time.
"You know it didn't look good for Hunter Biden to be on that board, even if he did nothing wrong. The optics weren't good. And you talk a lot about what it means to be a Biden and the integrity that is imbued in that family name. But there were former White House aides of yours who tried to warn you about the potential conflicts of interest," Martin said.
"Nobody warned me about a potential conflict of interest. Nobody warned me about that," Biden insisted. "I never, never heard that once at all."
George Kent, who is currently the deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, testified during a impeachment inquiry hearing that he flagged about Hunter taking the job to Biden's staff when he was vice president.
"Well, my son was dying, so I guess that's why he said it, because my son was on his deathbed. But that, that's not the reason why — they should have told me," Biden continued, "And the fact of the matter is, my son testified and did an interview saying if he, looking back on it, made a mistake, he made a mistake although he did nothing wrong. The appearance looked bad and it gave folks like Rudy Giuliani an excuse to come up with a Trumpian kind of defense, why they were violating the Constitution. His, his words speak for themselves."
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