During one of the 2020 presidential election debates, Joe Biden called Donald Trump a “clown” for mentioning Hunter Biden’s $3.5 million donation from the Mayor of Moscow’s wife.
“China ate your lunch, Joe. And no wonder your son goes in and he takes out, he takes out billions of dollars. Takes out billions of dollars to manage. He makes millions of dollars. And also while we’re at it, why is it just out of curiosity, the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son three and a half million dollars. What did he do to deserve it? What did he do with Burisma to deserve $183,000?” Trump said.
Joe Biden denied the accusation.
“None of that is true,” Biden responded.
“Totally discredited…That is not true,” he continued.
Moderator Chris Wallace continued to interject in the exchange between Trump and Biden.
“Mr. President! It’s an open discussion. Please!” Wallace said.
“It’s a fact!” Trump exclaimed.
“Mr. President, let him answer,” Wallace said.
“He doesn’t want me to answer because he knows I have the truth. His position has been totally thoroughly discredited…by the media, by our allies, by the World Bank…by everyone. It’s discredited,” Biden said.
“It’s hard to get any word in with this clown,” Biden added.
“Three and a half million Joe. Why did he deserve three and a half million from Moscow?” Trump asked.
WATCH:
The mainstream media ran cover for Joe Biden and excused the allegation.
From The Washington Post in 2022:
Less than 50 days before the 2020 presidential election, the Republican staff of the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees issued a joint report with a startling claim — that Joe Biden’s son Hunter had received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the widow of the former mayor of Moscow.
Trump quickly weaponized the factoid, mentioning it 42 times in the final weeks of the campaign. He sharply questioned Biden during the first presidential debate: “They were the ones involved with Russia, turns out not me, it was the opposite. But why did your son get three and a half million from the wife of the mayor of Moscow?”
An attorney for Hunter Biden denied the allegation in 2020 but it has lived on, especially in the right-wing media. Recently Trump called on Putin to reveal what he knows about it.
Devon Archer testified Monday before the House Oversight Committee, confirming Joe Biden attended a business dinner with Russia’s Yelena Baturina.
“In 2014, then-VP Biden attended a business dinner with Hunter & his associates at Café Milano in D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, was an attendee. Notably, the Biden Admin’s public sanctions do not contain Baturina,” the House Oversight Committee said.
In 2014, then-VP Biden attended a business dinner with Hunter & his associates at Café Milano in D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, was an attendee. Notably, the Biden Admin’s public sanctions do not contain Baturina.
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 31, 2023
Daily Mail reports:
Hunter Biden’s real estate company received a $40million investment from a Russian oligarch, new emails reveal.
The relationship between the president’s son and Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of a corrupt Moscow mayor, has already been flagged as alarming by a Senate report after she mysteriously wired $3.5million to a company linked to Hunter.
Baturina’s brother Viktor Baturin told DailyMail.com the money was ‘a payment to enter the American market.’
But DailyMail.com can now reveal that Hunter’s financial relationship with Baturina was far more extensive, with her firm investing $40million in a real estate venture by Hunter’s company Rosemont Realty.
In 2012 Hunter’s firm had a $69.7million plan to invest in 2.15million sq ft of office space in seven US cities.
Documents outlining the plan said the money came from a mix of investors, including $40million from Inteco Management AG, a Swiss company owned by Baturina.
The Inteco group is a plastics and construction behemoth that made Baturina the richest woman in Russia at the time. She has a current net worth of $1.4billion according to Forbes.
