During a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday, Joe Biden was asked if his son, Hunter, 50, committed a crime.
“I’m proud of my son,” Joe Biden, 78, responded. He said nothing further.
A day prior, aides with the Democrat’s team stepped in front of cameras and shooed reporters away after his wife, Jill Biden, was asked about Hunter. Hunter is Biden’s son from his first marriage to Neilia who was killed in a car accident with her daughter.
The stonewalling drew criticism from Republicans. “Asked if Hunter Biden committed a crime, Joe Biden says he’s ‘proud’ of Hunter. Joe Biden needs to give real answers NOW,” Steve Guest, rapid response director for the GOP, said in a tweet.
“Joe Biden stood on that debate stage and said no, my son did not make any money from China. He looked the American people in the face and he lied to them,” added Jason Miller, a President Donald Trump campaign adviser, during an appearance on Fox News on Friday.
The Biden team, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, has released a single statement from Joe Biden, saying he “is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger.”
Joe Biden is accused of lying when he insisted he never discussed his son’s business dealings. Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, said he met with Joe Biden several years ago about a pending deal with Chinese businessmen and that Hunter Biden proposed a business arrangement that would give the elder Biden 10 percent of the proceeds.
Burisma employed Hunter Biden while his father was vice president and the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine. Joe Biden bragged in 2018 that he threatened to withhold money from Ukraine unless it ousted a prosecutor who was probing Burisma.
Joe Biden and Biden’s team have repeatedly criticized reporting on Hunter Biden and repeatedly said there was no wrongdoing.
Moderator Chris Wallace cut off the line of questioning.