In a move that has raised eyebrows, the president’s re-election campaign canceled an MSNBC interview last week after the Department of Justice appointed a special counsel in the investigation of his son Hunter.
The New York Times reported that Julie Chávez, Biden’s campaign manager, backed out of a scheduled appearance set for Friday.
There are two people familiar with the scheduling of Biden administration interviews conveyed that Chávez bailed on the interview to avoid questions about Delaware’s U.S. Attorney David Weiss being elevated to special counsel status.
The president’s son is facing the prospect of going to trial now that a plea deal on tax evasion charges fell apart. The problem for Biden is that prior to the plea deal drama, the president said in an interview on MSNBC in May that his son “has done nothing wrong.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged questions about the special counsel’s investigation and she focused on the importance of the Department of Justice handling the case independently.
“I will say this — and you’ve heard this from the President — is that he loves his son, and he is proud of him overcoming his addiction and how he’s continuing to build his life. But I don’t have anything else to add to that,” she said.
The White House administration also kept Biden away from reporters when he returned from the White House after a vacation on the Delaware beach.
Questions were thrown his way after the president stepped off Marine One, including queries about Hunter Biden and the special counsel, but the elder Biden “was far enough away that it was unclear whether he could hear the questions over the background noise,” Dallas Morning News correspondent Joseph Morton wrote in a pool report.
Biden campaign canceled MSNBC appearance for fear of Hunter Biden questions: Report https://t.co/NXm7SHOb43
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 15, 2023
