After last week's disclosure by the House Ways and Means Committee of IRS whistleblowers' testimony alleging preferential treatment for Hunter Biden before he received a sweetheart plea deal, the White House quietly tried to change its story on President Joe Biden's role in his family's web of suspicious-looking businesses.
Karine Jean-Pierre, on Friday, faced ire from even mainstream reporters when she refused to talk about the president's knowledge about his son's businesses, repeatedly referring questions to the White House Counsel's Office.
"Nothing has changed," a frustrated Jean-Pierre insisted when asked if President Biden's response to questions about Hunter's businesses and apparent criminal acts was still that he had "never" discussed his son's business with him.
Biden set that narrative during the 2020 campaign and stated it frequently:
"I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings," Biden said in response to one question.
"I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses — period," Biden emphasized when asked another time.
"I have never discussed my business or their business, my son's or daughter's, I've never discussed them," Biden told an interviewer.
"I don't discuss business with my son and- because I don't discuss things with my son or my family because I don't want to have any knowledge of any- I don't want to be accused of 'well you talked with your son...'" he reasoned another time.
"Yes I stand by that statement," Biden declared when asked whether he still stood by his claim as evidence mounted against the first family.
Jean-Pierre had reiterated that line from the White House podium after Biden took office. As of Friday, Jean-Pierre was still going with that line, although not sticking as strongly to it, by refusing to repeat her and Biden's previous blanket denial of conversations about Hunter's businesses, instead going with "nothing has changed."
Karine Jean-Pierre just spent two entire minutes lashing out at reporters for asking about Hunter Biden. pic.twitter.com/ucRrkKwE8f
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 23, 2023
Well, now we know why she wouldn't repeat Biden and the White House's previous statement that the president "never" discussed Hunter's businesses — they were in the middle of an operation to shift the goalposts by a significant margin as more information comes to light about Hunter's shady and illicit dealings and how the president may have been involved.
You see, according to the White House Counsel's Office and its spokesman Ian Sams, "the President was not in business with his son." Despite the fact that this is an entirely new narrative from the White House and Biden, Sams claimed that this new line is one "we have said many times before."
NEW from @IanSams46 , spox for the WH Counsels office, in light of whistleblower allegations:
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) June 23, 2023
SAMS: “As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son.” pic.twitter.com/24neXk4JZf
Except, that wasn't the line that Biden ran with in 2020, nor the one that Karine Jean-Pierre re-stated from the White House briefing room previously and, just last week, claimed hadn't changed.
The claim that Joe Biden is "not in business" with Hunter is a far cry from the previous narrative that the president had never discussed Hunter's businesses with his son.
It seems as though the Biden administration's claims have changed as the known facts did, and the White House is now banking on the fact that it can now acknowledge there may have been discussions between Hunter and the president about the First Kid's businesses, but that there won't also be proof that Joe Biden was "in business" with Hunter.
Whatever the new strategy aimed at protecting Biden and his power turns out to be, it now seems clear that Biden, Jean-Pierre, and others defending the president lied about his knowledge of Hunter's businesses. And now they're hoping Americans won't notice that the White House has changed its story.