HuffPost: Another GOP ‘Bombshell’ About Joe Biden Turns Out To Be A Dud
Comer has been leading Republicans’ investigation and impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which so far hasn’t implicated Biden himself and in recent weeks has been overshadowed by infighting among Republicans that has paralyzed the House of Representatives.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee say the personal bank records recently provided to the committee actually do show that Biden loaned his brother the money.
“These records actually show that President Biden was the one who stepped in to help family members when they needed support, including by providing short term loans to his brother,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement.
Raskin added that the 1,400 pages of records Republicans got from their subpoenas, which asked banks for several years of records relating to the president’s brother and son, show no wrongdoing, but do reveal “payments for things like groceries, vet visits, and plumbing repairs.”
HuffPost obtained check images and a spreadsheet reflecting wire transfer records that mostly corroborate Raskin’s claim about the $200,000 transaction from March 2018. The documents suggest an account connected to Joe Biden sent James Biden $40,000 in July 2017 and $200,000 in January 2018, and that James Biden paid the money back without interest. The wire transfer records do not say, however, that the payments to James Biden were loans.
NBC News: James Comer’s latest Biden accusation has one glaring flaw
It’s not exactly a secret that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s crusade against President Joe Biden hasn’t gone especially well. After nearly a year of trying to uncover evidence of the Democrat receiving illicit payments before reaching the White House, the Kentucky Republican and his allies have come up empty…
Based on the available information, Joe Biden — in his personal capacity, two years after serving as vice president — loaned his brother some money. Then, his brother paid him back. It’s why James Biden literally wrote on the check itself, “Loan repayment.”
That’s just not that interesting. Indeed, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell on California noted online soon after, “[Comer] proves Joe Biden generously loaned his family money and they responsibly paid him back. Nice work, detective!”
A day earlier, Steve Bannon, a veteran of the Trump White House and a prominent far-right media personality, labeled the Oversight Committee chairman “Comer the Clown.”
Evidently, Republicans hoped the public would take the story seriously because James Biden repaid his brother after receiving money from a hospital company he was working with. But again, this appears quite anodyne: James Biden needed a loan; Joe Biden helped his brother; and James Biden repaid the loan six weeks later when he had the money. (The future president did not charge any interest.)
In other words, this latest pitch suffers from one glaring flaw: The story isn’t scandalous; it’s boring.