Hunter Biden’s ex-business associate on Tucker Carlson: President Biden was ‘the brand’

The House Oversight Committee released a transcript Thursday of the testimony Hunter Biden’s former business partner gave during a closed-door hearing earlier this week.

The committee said Devon Archer, the business partner, revealed details of the Biden family’s business dealings, including President Joe Biden being a part of “the brand,” and his phone calls and meetings with the foreign business associates of Hunter Biden, his son.

In his appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show on X platform, formerly known as Twitter, Archer reiterated the claims he made in his testimony on Thursday.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ian Sams posted on social media Thursday that the transcript of Archer’s testimony “confirms President Biden was not involved in his son’s business.”

His post cited Archer being asked if he knew President Biden was involved with Burisma, a Ukrainian oil and gas company that seated Hunter Biden and Archer on its board. “No,” Archer replied.

The transcript also includes Archer disagreeing with the conclusion that President Biden was bribed, as Sams pointed out, characterizing allegations against the president as “baseless.”

Archer: ‘The brand of Biden adds a lot of power when your dad’s VP’

Archer confirmed to Carlson, the former Fox News host, that Hunter Biden was an appealing hire for his business clients because of his degree from Yale Law School, a lengthy career in Washington, and “the Biden brand” itself.

“When we initially met, he talked about his advisory businesses that needed to transition from lobbying to advisory, and an interest in private equity, it seemed like a new and interesting network for us to expand our business,” he said. “Obviously, the brand of Biden adds a lot of power when your dad’s vice president.”

Archer said that Biden was going to provide “government insight and an additional network to raise capital” while providing feedback on any regulatory issues on the corporate level.

For example, Archer said, if a business needed to obtain a U.S. visa for someone, Biden would phone a lobbyist with connections to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, or the embassy to receive help.

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Hunter Biden’s legal counsel issued a statement, stating that Hunter Biden did not involve his father in business, per The Hill.

“It’s well known that Hunter and his father speak daily, and what Mr. Archer confirmed was that when those calls occurred during Hunter’s business meetings, if there was any interaction between his father and his business associates, it was simply to exchange small talk,” said Abbe Lowell, counsel for Hunter Biden.

“Like the relatives of Donald Trump, Senators Ron Johnson, and Ted Cruz, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and many others, family members of elected representatives meet people and may get opportunities because of those connections. Congress would be busy investigating many of their own if that’s their idea of an offense.”

President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings

Archer also told Carlson that over a 10-year partnership with Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden was on speakerphone in client meetings 20 times.

“I don’t know if it was an orchestrated call-in or not. It certainly was powerful, though, because if you’re sitting with a foreign businessperson, and you hear the vice president’s voice, that’s prized enough,” he said, adding that Hunter Biden’s access was “the pinnacle of power in D.C.” and in hindsight, “an abuse of soft power.”

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who attended the closed-door hearing, said that Archer’s testimony did not prove that President Biden was directly involved in his son’s business.

“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately 20 times over the course of 10 year relationship, Hunter may have put his father on the phone with any number of different people, and they never once spoke about any business dealings,” Goldman said.

Archer also claimed that then-Vice President Biden knew that he was meeting his son’s business associates at specific dinners and meetings. Archer met President Biden at the 2000 convention in Los Angeles and later in Boston in 2004.

Carlson showed Archer a letter dated Jan. 11, 2011, which President Biden personally wrote to Archer. It says, “I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday. I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu,” the former president of China.

“I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter,” the letter says. At the bottom of the letter is a handwritten P.S.: “Happy you guys are together.”

Archer said the “lovely letter” marked the start of the partnership with the Biden family.

“I think he was excited about the prospects for Hunter,” he said.