The Bidens reaped millions for talking about the weather?
Byron York
THE BIDENS REAPED MILLIONS FOR TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER? The House Oversight Committee has released a new report on the progress of its investigation into Biden family influence-peddling during the time Joe Biden was vice president of the United States. “Committee staff is releasing payments from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan that occurred during Joe Biden’s vice presidency,” the report said. “The committee has now identified over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates.”
Among other findings: “Then-Vice President Biden joined approximately 20 phone calls on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who paid huge sums of money to Hunter Biden.”
Two dinners are discussed in the report. One of them took place in the spring of 2014 at Cafe Milano, a see-and-be-seen restaurant in Washington, D.C. As opposed to earlier stories that had Joe Biden dropping in quickly, shaking a few hands, and leaving, on this occasion, the elder Biden stayed for dinner, according to the testimony of former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer.
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That dinner is particularly interesting to investigators because it included Yelena Baturina, a Russian billionaire businesswoman whose late husband had been mayor of Moscow. Not long before the event, Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, one of Hunter Biden’s many companies. And then — voila! — she found herself at dinner with the vice president of the U.S.
That is what people in Hunter Biden’s business circle meant when they talked about Joe Biden being the “brand” of the family influence business. He was also its product. What did Baturina get for her $3.5 million? Among other things, a face-to-face meeting with the vice president.
But what else? What was discussed? What projects were undertaken, or not undertaken, as a result of the get-together at Cafe Milano? For anyone trying to learn what happened, that is the hardest part of the investigation because the Biden story seems to be that when Baturina paid $3.5 million, she got to talk to Joe Biden about…the weather.
Archer’s testimony provides a firsthand account of some of Hunter and Joe Biden’s business dealings. That testimony was an extremely valuable confirmation that Joe Biden was, in fact, a part of Hunter Biden’s business activities, something Joe Biden has denied for years. But Archer’s memory is less clear about the actual conversations that took place.
That’s where the weather comes in. When Archer was asked to describe the Cafe Milano dinner, he said, “He [Joe Biden] entered the room and shook everybody’s hand. And, you know, the conversation … I don’t really remember it. … I just remember that he was — he came to dinner, and we ate and kind of talked about the world, I guess, and the weather, and then everybody left.”
On another occasion, Hunter Biden was in Paris meeting with prospective business partners. “I remember a dinner in Paris with a French energy company,” Archer testified. Hunter Biden was making some sort of pitch, finishing up with dinner. “And there was a talk, and [Hunter] said that we’re at this — you know, we’re at this restaurant in Paris, and he put [Joe] on the speaker. So that did happen. There were other people there.” Later in the testimony, Archer said that Hunter Biden introduced the vice president to the business associates gathered in the restaurant. “He’d say, ‘Hey, say hello to — you know, it’s great in Paris, the weather’s this.'”
“So Hunter Biden would tell his dad, he’s in Paris, the weather’s great?” asked a committee lawyer. “Yeah,” Archer said.
Archer remembered another dinner, this one at a restaurant in Beijing with a wealthy Chinese businessman. Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone. Asked what was said, Archer answered, “I mean, on any of the specifics, from a blanket perspective, it was always, you know, what’s the — you know, not necessarily the weather, but, you know … I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that. It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be.”
Speaking broadly, Archer said that Hunter Biden and his father talked about the weather a great, great deal. “You know Hunter spoke to his dad every day, right?” Archer told the committee. “If his dad calls him at dinner and he picks up the phone, then there’s a conversation. And, you know, the conversation is generally about the weather and, you know, what it’s like in Norway or Paris or wherever he may be.
Republicans are obviously suspicious. With so much money changing hands — that is, millions going into Hunter Biden’s hands — was all the talk really about the weather? Veterans of organized crime investigations might point out that suspects often characterize incriminating conversations as having been about something innocuous, like the weather. And even if each conversation started with pleasantries, at some point, somebody got something for all those millions of dollars, right?
For their part, Democrats are defending Joe Biden by suggesting that Hunter Biden was deceiving his clients and would-be clients. Hunter Biden was not selling access to his father, some Democrats claim — he was selling the illusion of access to his father. It is hard to figure out what that means in relation to, say, the Cafe Milano dinner, where Joe Biden, in the flesh, was sitting with his son’s shady business associates. Or what it means in relation to the phone calls in which Joe Biden addressed his son’s partners. But that is what Democrats say.
Here’s the thing. Even if he just talked about the weather, Joe Biden was conferring legitimacy on his son when his son met with foreign moneymen and women. You want to see me talk to my father, the vice president? Here, let’s do it now. I can talk with him at any time. That’s how things get done in Washington.
At one point in Archer’s testimony, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), the chief proponent of the “illusion of access” theory, suggested Joe Biden played no role in Hunter Biden’s activities. “Was this just part of his [Hunter’s] effort to say, ‘Hey, I’m Joe Biden’s son, and I talk to Joe Biden a lot’?” Goldman asked. Archer responded: “I think it’s just, you know, just common sense, and that it’s the brand and that’s the value and — yeah. It was about projecting who he was.”
Goldman redoubled his effort to clear Joe Biden. “In fact, Hunter never asked his father to take official actions on behalf of his business partners?” Goldman asked Archer. “He did not,” Archer said. “To my knowledge, I never saw him say, do anything for a particular business.” Goldman continued, “And you’re not aware of Joe Biden ever doing anything to help his son’s business partners?” Archer answered: “No. I think that the calls were — that’s what it was. They were calls to talk about the weather, and that was signal enough to be powerful.”
“Signal enough to be powerful.” When Hunter Biden introduced his rich, shady foreign business associates to his father, no matter what the conversation specifically covered, the message was: I have the juice to get anything you need done in Washington. And I can get it done for just $1 million. Or $3.5 million. Or $20 million.
Does that mean there really were no official acts taken, no favors given, for all that money? That’s what Republicans are trying to determine. Perhaps it means there were no official acts with Joe Biden’s fingerprints on them. But at this point, there is no doubt that Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and knew that he, Joe Biden, was the “brand” that gave his son value in the influence-peddling trade and regularly played a role in his family’s very, very lucrative business.
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