On Tuesday, the Associated Press tweeted out this spin: “Since gaining the House majority, House Republicans have aggressively investigated Biden and his son, claiming without evidence that they engaged in an influence peddling scheme.” This was a quote from a “news” story by AP congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri, who clearly needs help locating easily available evidence.
Amiri added: “The allegations echo those that former President Donald Trump has made for years against Biden and his family.” Well, the AP story echoes the line the Biden family has made for years. She sounds like a KJP repeater, not a reporter.
Taking questions on Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy educated Amiri on the evidence she professed to be missing.
Amiri told the Speaker that Rep. Darrell Issa said fellow Republicans James Comer and Jim Jordan hadn’t yet found an impeachable offense and asked if he agreed with Issa. (Issa fully supports the inquiry.)
In response, McCarthy turned the questions around on the reporter.
“Do you believe the president lied to the American public that he never talked to his son about business dealings. Yes or no?” She said “I can’t answer that.” He repeated: “You can’t answer that?” Reporters can be bad at answering tough questions!
Then he asked “Do you believe when they said the president went on conference calls, do you believe that happened?” Amiri can be heard saying “That’s what the testimony said.”
Kevin McCarthy meets with an @AP reporter and calmly details how her outlet was completely wrong about there being “no evidence” regarding the impeachment inquiry.
She even responds with “well that’s what the testimony said.”
Update for @AP: TESTIMONY is regarded as “evidence”. pic.twitter.com/zqIdAKvm0T— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) September 14, 2023
McCarthy kept going: “Do you believe the president went to Café Milano and had dinner with the clients of Hunter Biden, who believes he got those clients because he was selling The Brand? Do you believe the video of Hunter Biden, when you saw him driving a Porsche, that he got $143,000 to buy that Porsche the next day?”
Surely, AP was all over these stories, right? If so, why would they write “without evidence” in their snarky dispatches? McCarthy kept pressing: “Do you believe the $3 million from the Russian oligarch that was transferred to the shell companies that the Bidens controlled after the dinner from Café Milano took place?” Again, Amiri said “That’s the testimony.”
So McCarthy concluded Biden was lying, and Amiri shot back, “That’s not impeachable, is lying an impeachable offense? McCarthy said he wasn’t saying it was impeachable, but these questions are what an impeachment inquiry is asking.
Trump operative Arthur Schwartz tweeted at Amiri afterward: “You keep saying ‘without evidence’ but here you acknowledged over and over that ‘that’s what the testimony said.’ You understand that testimony is evidence, right? So which is it, are you dumb or dishonest? Cuz those are the only two options here.”