(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The debris field found outside Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday is confirmed to be the remains of an F-35 that went missing on Sunday after a reported “mishap” or “malfunction” in which the jet’s pilot ejected from the craft, according to a Marine Corps official.
The overall recovery process for the debris and the F-35B Lightning II has begun, the official told ABC News in a pair of statements.
The official would not specify what point in the recovery and investigation process the Marine Corps is in but said the process is ongoing.
It has not been publicly confirmed what led the pilot to eject or what brought the F-35 down. “It’s very frustrating to not have any answers,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told local affiliate WCIV on Monday.
The Marines say the cost of the loss of the highly sophisticated stealth plane is around $100 million.
A South Carolina law enforcement helicopter first located the aircraft and debris approximately 60 miles north of Charleston on Monday at 5 p.m. EDT, the official said.
Local law enforcement and the Marine Corps Emergency Reclamation Team “confirmed the debris to be an F-35B,” and then “cordoned off and secured the area” after they identified the aircraft, the official added.
The pilot who ejected himself from the F-35 was discharged from the hospital on Monday afternoon, according to the official.
The pilot, whose name has not been released, had no major injuries and was in stable condition before being discharged, the official said. No civilian injuries have been reported from the incident.
The pilot ejected himself from the aircraft at altitude of approximately 1,000 feet “and one mile north of the Charleston International Airport,” according to the official. The pilot then landed safely in a residential backyard.
The pilot had “experienced a malfunction and was forced to eject,” the official said. The Marines Corp previously described the incident as a “mishap.”
Officials said in a statement on Monday that “we are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process.”
Mace, who has been critical of the Marines’ handling of the incident so far, said on Monday, “Not to be able to provide answers to the community, you know, when mistakes happen — we should be able to take responsibility for it and communicate and be transparent with the public.”
ABC News contributor and retired Col. Steve Ganyard likewise has expressed some surprise at how this has unfolded.
“Even though it’s a stealth aircraft, losing a stealth aircraft is hard to understand. … It does seem ridiculous that an aircraft this expensive, this sophisticated, it could just vanish,” he said.
The transponder that was on the F-35 would have helped locate it, but the Marine Corps hasn’t said whether the device was functioning.
“If there was, say, an electrical failure on board where the transponder, the beams out to the radar, was no longer functioning — then it becomes a stealth aircraft, essentially invisible to radar,” Ganyard said.
ABC News’ Adam Carlson, Nathan Luna and Cindy Smith contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The political clash on Capitol Hill over Ukraine aid will be front and center when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with lawmakers in Washington later this week.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said he has questions for the Ukrainian president when asked if he plans to commit to another round of aid.
“Is Zelenskyy elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don’t think I have to commit anything and I think I have questions for him,” McCarthy told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
“Where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent? What is the plan for victory? I think that’s what the American public wants to know,” McCarthy added.
Ukraine funding is a key point of intraparty strife as Congress barrels toward a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a spending measure or enter a government shutdown.
The White House has asked for an additional $24 billion to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invaders — a request backed by congressional Democrats.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has publicly advocated for continued defense and financial assistance. But McCarthy is more skeptical, and a growing number of House Republican hard-liners are adamantly opposed to sending more money to the war-torn nation.
McCarthy has repeatedly said the United States should not be giving Ukraine a “blank check” though has vehemently criticized Russia’s actions.
“Look what Russia has done — invade — is wrong,” McCarthy said Tuesday. “It’s an atrocity, we want to make sure that ends. I also have always said from the beginning, no matter what the issue is, I want accountability for whatever the hardworking taxpayers spend their money on. I want to plan for victory. So no, I will listen to the American public. I will follow what happens in Congress, but I will have questions for President Zelenskyy.”
Zelenskyy will arrive in Washington after his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
He’s scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House and visit Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Biden, in his speech at the United Nations gathering on Tuesday, urged world leaders to stand by Ukraine as the war stretches on.
“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today, and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow. That’s why the United States, together with our allies and partners around the world, will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and their freedom,” Biden said to applause.
Zelenskyy was able to secure more funding — $50 billion — when he was last in Washington. The dramatic visit made last December was his first known trip outside Ukraine since the war began.
Speaking to a packed joint session of Congress, Zelenskyy delivered an plea for additional help with weapons and financial assistance. He told lawmakers the “money is not charity.”
“It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way,” he said to cheers.
ABC’s Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden will on Tuesday issue a defense of American leadership abroad and reiterate U.S. support for Ukraine, during a high-profile speech at the United Nations, according to senior Biden administration officials — as the 2024 presidential election ramps up at home.
In particular, Biden will reiterate U.S. support for revamping how the World Bank and other multilateral development banks work with low- and middle-income countries, the officials said. The push is an implicit counterweight to China’s longtime investment in developing nations around the world.
The president’s Tuesday speech to the United Nations General Assembly will also tackle climate change and present an American commitment to the United Nations Charter and supporting human rights around the world, the administration officials told reporters Monday.
“I think you’re going to see a full-throated defense of support for Ukraine and why that’s not important, not just to our national security interest but the whole idea of sovereignty and the U.N. Charter itself,” White House spokesman John Kirby said in a Monday interview with MSNBC.
Biden’s presence on the world stage will come one week after he returned from a trip to India and Vietnam, where he pushed for development bank reform at a meeting of “Group of 20” leaders in New Delhi, India, and in Hanoi, Vietnam, agreed to significantly upgrade U.S.-Vietnamese relations.
It also comes as the White House and Biden’s campaign seek to present him as a global leader providing results for the American leaders — hard at work — in contrast, they say, with former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican primary presidential election. He will meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Thursday as both men push Congress to approve $24 billion more in funding for Kyiv over the objections of some House Republicans.
While in New York, on Wednesday, Biden will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the White House.
The officials declined to share more information about the long-delayed meeting with Netanyahu or explain why it is taking place on the margins of the annual General Assembly meeting rather than at the White House. Netanyahu returned to power late last year, and Biden has pointedly taken nearly nine months to schedule a meeting with him.
Israeli prime ministers often meet with U.S. counterparts much more quickly; Biden, though, has called Netanyahu’s government the most extreme in decades and has offered measured criticism of the Israeli prime minister’s handling of historic pro-democracy protests in Israel.
In New York, on Tuesday, the officials said, Biden will also meet with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, as well as with five Central Asian leaders — from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. And on Wednesday, Biden will also meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the officials said.
“President Biden is going into this year’s General Assembly with the United States confident,” an official said. “We have strong allies and new partners; we have a vision for institutional reform at the UN, at the World Bank and elsewhere; and we have initiatives to deliver on infrastructure, on health, on climate and other global public goods.”
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump, not for the first time, sparked criticism on Monday after he posted on his Truth Social platform knocking “liberal Jews who voted against America & Israel.”
Elsewhere, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back on criticism out of Capitol Hill — and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott weighed in on a new deal to help five American detainees leave Iran.
Those and other updates from the campaign trail, below.
Blowback for Trump
Trump’s message about Jewish people came on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It’s not immediately clear what caused him to post what he did — but the denunciations were swift. (His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
The American Jewish Committee wrote on X in response that it was “deeply offensive and divisive. As we approach one year until the next election, we urge political candidates from the top to the bottom of the ballot to avoid incendiary rhetoric.”
“Next time you attack American Jews, think twice before about doing it on one of our holiest days. Your antisemitism is loud & clear,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., added on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.
This is not the first controversial remark Trump has made about Jewish voters. In 2019, he criticized Jewish people who vote for Democrats, claiming it “shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty” — apparently to Israel.
DeSantis returns to his House roots
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is fighting to be the main alternative to Trump in the GOP primary. But the former president isn’t the only one he’s fighting.
DeSantis has come under direct or indirect fire from other pillars of the GOP as his campaign falters in the polls and as Trump solidifies his yawning early primary lead. The governor is defending himself, but surveys of the Republican base suggest he has significant ground to make up in the final months before voting begins.
DeSantis, who served in the House before being elected governor, took on Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Monday.
McCarthy, a Trump ally, had targeted DeSantis in a Sunday interview on Fox News, knocking DeSantis’ chances of earning the GOP’s presidential nomination.
“Look, I served with Ron DeSantis — he’s not at the same level as President Trump by any shape or form. He would not have gotten elected without President Trump’s endorsement,” McCarthy said.
DeSantis returned fire Monday, highlighting McCarthy’s ties to Trump.
“Donald Trump was instrumental in him earning that speaker’s gavel, and they worked hand in glove really throughout his whole presidency. They were on the same team on every major spending bill that came down the pike and they ended up together adding $7.8 trillion to our national debt,” DeSantis said at a press conference.
Less money, more problems?
DeSantis was also hit with a financial setback on Monday when GOP megadonor and former Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said he would not donate to anyone in the party’s presidential primary.
Griffin, who has a net worth of roughly $35 billion, gave millions to DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial bid and said as recently as November said that the country “would be well-served by him as president.”
But Griffin told CNBC in an interview that he’s unsure if DeSantis will be able to gin up sufficient support to win nomination. (DeSantis’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Griffin.)
“I’m still on the sidelines as to who to support in this election cycle,” Griffin said. “Look, if I had my dream, we’d have a great Republican candidate in the primary who was younger, of a different generation, with a different tone for America. And we’d have a younger person on the Democratic side in the primary, who would have his message for our country.”
“I don’t know his strategy,” Griffin added of DeSantis. “It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to.”
GOP candidates target Iran deal for detainees
Elsewhere, some GOP presidential candidates were taking aim at the White House’s recent deal with Iran to free five Americans from detention in exchange for Washington unfreezing $6 billion in oil revenue.
“It’s no real surprise that weakness arouses evil. Iran thumbed its nose at America by kicking UN nuclear inspectors out of the country, just a few days later,” former Vice President Mike Pence said in a foreign policy speech on Monday.
“That is always a bad decision. It raises the price on American heads,” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott added during a campaign stop in Iowa. “Six billion dollars of released funds will only make it far more expensive for every single American who’s traveling abroad. It’s a bad decision although we do thank God that those folks are coming home.”
The White House has defended the agreement as not “ransom” or a “blank check.”
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Libby Cathey, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A debris field has been found in South Carolina during the search for a F-35 fighter jet that had gone missing after a “mishap” on Sunday, military officials confirmed in a statement on Monday night.
Officials said the debris was found in Williamsburg County some two hours northeast of Joint Base Charleston, which is now handing off command to the Marine Corps.
The pilot of the craft had “safely ejected” during the incident, authorities previously said.
A Marine Corps spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday “we are currently still gathering more information and assessing the situation. The mishap will be under investigation.”
“We are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigative process,” officials said in the statement on Monday.
“We would like to thank all of our mission partners, as well as local, county, and state authorities, for their dedication and support throughout the search and as we transition to the recovery phase,” the officials said.
Earlier Monday, the Marine Corps acting commandant, Eric Smith, issued a two-day stand-down focused on safety and procedures to take place at some point this week for all aviation units both inside and outside of the United States, a spokesman told ABC News.
While Smith said he has full confidence in the aviation units, he said he felt this was the “right and prudent” thing to do given both this incident and another recent incident in Australia.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Noah Minnie contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is expected to skip the second Republican primary debate, in California on Sept. 27, and will instead visit Detroit to deliver a speech in front of union workers, according to a senior adviser.
(WASHINGTON) — One of former President Donald Trump’s long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements.
As described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters.
The notecards with classification markings were at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 — but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators.
When Michael, who was not present for the search, returned to Mar-a-Lago the next day to clean up her office space, she found the documents underneath a drawer organizer and helped transfer them to the FBI that same day, sources told ABC News.
The sources said Michael also told federal investigators that last year she grew increasingly concerned with how Trump handled recurring requests from the National Archives for the return of all government documents being kept in boxes at Mar-a-Lago — and she felt that Trump’s claims about it at the time would be easy to disprove, according to the sources.
Sources said that after Trump heard the FBI wanted to interview Michael last year, Trump allegedly told her, “You don’t know anything about the boxes.”
It’s unclear exactly what he meant by that.
Trump pleaded not guilty in June to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to get the documents back. Trump has denied all charges and denounced the probe as a political witch hunt.
As ABC News previously reported, Michael is believed to be the person identified in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment as “Trump Employee 2,” described in the indictment as someone who handled many of Trump’s White House-era boxes at Mar-a-Lago and who provided Trump with photos of those boxes that were then included in the indictment.
Michael’s statements to investigators, described to ABC News by sources, shed further light on the breadth of evidence that Smith has amassed to support his case against Trump.
A Trump spokesperson said that what ABC News was told — through what the spokesperson called “illegal leaks” — lacks “proper context and relevant information,” and that “President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law.”
A representative for Michael declined to comment to ABC News. The FBI also declined to comment.
‘Easily’ disproven
In 2018, Michael became Trump’s executive assistant in the White House, and she continued to work for him when Trump left office. But she resigned last year, in the wake of Trump’s alleged refusal to comply with the federal requests and the FBI’s subsequent search of Mar-a-Lago.
Speaking to federal investigators, Michael recounted how, by late 2021, as many as 90 boxes of materials from Trump’s time as president were moved into a basement storage room at Mar-a-Lago, and how — as pressure from the National Archives mounted — she and Trump aide Walt Nauta would bring boxes to Trump’s residence for him to review.
Trump eventually agreed to turn over 15 boxes of materials, which Michael told investigators she viewed as a positive sign, sources told ABC News.
But then, according to what she told investigators, around the same time that the National Archives found nearly 200 classified documents in the 15 boxes and referred the matter to the FBI, Trump began to seem more reluctant to cooperate with the agency, and he asked Michael to help spread a message that no more boxes existed, sources said she recounted.
That’s when Michael became concerned, knowing that scores more boxes were in the storage room, sources said. And as Trump continued to claim that there were no more boxes, Michael even pointed out to him that many people, including maintenance workers, knew otherwise because they had all seen that there were many more than 15 boxes, sources said she told investigators.
Smith’s indictment against Trump alleges that that Trump asked one of his attorneys at the time, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
Speaking later with investigators, Michael said she believed early on that claims of no more boxes from Trump were “easily” disproven, and she believed Trump knew they were false because he knew the contents of those boxes better than anyone else — and because he had previously seen a photograph of the storage room with all 90 or so boxes in it, ABC News was told.
The Justice Department was apparently just as skeptical.
What the FBI didn’t take
In May of last year, convinced that Trump was still holding onto a cache of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the Justice Department issued a grand jury subpoena to Trump demanding he return any and all classified documents.
According to the indictment, when Trump attorney Evan Corcoran then planned to search for any remaining classified documents in the storage room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump directed Nauta and another aide to remove dozens of boxes from the storage room before Corcoran got there “so that many boxes were not searched and many boxes responsive to the … subpoena could not be found,” the indictment said.
Corcoran found only 38 classified documents in the boxes left in the storage room, and he handed them over to the FBI, along with a certification — allegedly endorsed by Trump — that the former president had now fully complied with the subpoena.
But the FBI still believed Trump was holding onto even more classified documents, and when FBI agents conducted an unannounced search of Mar-a-Lago three months later, they found 102 more classified documents in Trump’s office and elsewhere.
The next day, after the FBI search, Michael returned to work at Mar-a-Lago and found her desk in a bit of a mess, with drawers turned over, sources said. Buried underneath a drawer organizer were the to-do lists Trump had written for her on the backs of briefing notes with classification markings, Michael later recalled to investigators, according to sources.
When Michael discovered that the FBI hadn’t taken those documents in their search of Mar-a-Lago, she helped make sure they were given to the FBI that same day, the sources told ABC News.
It’s unclear if Michael notified Trump or others at Mar-a-Lago about her discovery, or if any of those notecards from White House briefings are among the 32 different classified documents that Trump is charged with unlawfully retaining.
The indictment also accuses Trump of trying “to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations” by, among other things, providing “just some of the documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully.”
In her statements to investigators, as described by sources to ABC News, Michael noted that when the FBI first contacted her for an interview as part of their investigation last year, she notified Trump about the request. In response, he told her, “You don’t know anything about the boxes,” she told investigators, according to the sources.
‘Anything you need from us’
A Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, previously told ABC News that Trump “offered full cooperation with DOJ, and told [a] key DOJ official, in person, ‘Anything you need from us, just let us know.'”
According to transcripts of contemporaneous voice notes made by Trump attorney Corcoran and reviewed by ABC News, Trump did make such a statement on June 3 of last year at Mar-a-Lago, when a senior Justice Department official and FBI agents came to retrieve the 38 classified documents that Corcoran found in the basement storage room.
But, according to the indictment, that’s the same day Trump “caused a false certification to be submitted to the FBI” claiming there were no more classified documents. And before Trump spoke with the Justice Department official, many of his boxes were loaded onto his plane headed “north for the summer,” according to the indictment.
In addition, after the Justice Department weeks later issued a second subpoena for security camera footage from inside Mar-a-Lago, Trump tried to have some of that footage deleted “to conceal information from the FBI and grand jury,” the indictment alleged.
Alongside Trump, the indictment also charged Nauta and the other Trump aide, Carlos de Oliveira, for their alleged roles in the conspiracy to hide classified documents from the FBI.
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., announced Monday she will not seek reelection in 2024 after receiving a new diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy.
Wexton, 55, was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease earlier this year. At the time, she said she was “feeling good” and hoped to continue serving in Congress for many years.
But in a statement on Monday, Wexton explained she wasn’t making the progress she’d hoped for in managing her symptoms and noticed others in her Parkinson’s support group weren’t having the same experience.
“I sought out additional medical opinions and testing, and my doctors modified my diagnosis to Supra-nuclear Palsy — a kind of ‘Parkinson’s on steroids.'”
“I’ve always believed that honesty is the most important value in public service, so I want to be honest with you now — this new diagnosis is a tough one. There is no ‘getting better’ with PSP,” she said.
Wexton said she is “heartbroken” not to run for another term, but has made the decision to spend her time with her husband and their two sons.
“While my time in Congress will soon come to a close, I’m just as confident and committed as ever to keep up the work that got me into this fight in the first place for my remaining time in office — to help build the future we want for our children,” she said.
Wexton was first elected to Congress in 2018 when she defeated longtime Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock, ending nearly four decades of GOP control of the North Virginia district.
Before serving as a U.S. congresswoman, Wexton spent several decades as a prosecutor and spent five years as a Virginia state senator.
“She is an amazing public servant, listener, and fighter for her constituents,” Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine wrote in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to her retirement announcement. “I will miss her terribly in Congress and I’ll be keeping her in my prayers.”
When Wexton was originally diagnosed with Parkinson’s, she told “GMA3” she felt she had a responsibility to share it with the public because of the “90,000 or so people who are diagnosed every year in the U.S., I felt like I was one of the few who could actually do something about it.”
She said she wanted to combat misconceptions that only older people could be diagnosed with the disease: “I want to make sure they set the record straight and also be clear about getting treatment if you feel like you have symptoms.”
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans from both sides of the conference came to a deal on a short-term government funding bill this weekend. The effort was led by GOP Reps. Dusty Johnson, House Freedom Caucus chair Scott Perry, Stephanie Bice, Chip Roy and Kelly Armstrong.
The deal includes a one-month continuing resolution, funding the government through Oct. 31. It also includes an 8% funding cut to domestic agencies except for Veteran Affairs and the Pentagon. Another part of the bill includes components of border security legislation (H.R.2) besides E-verify provisions.
“Congress must keep government open and secure the border. That’s why we’ve worked with leaders of the House Freedom Caucus to introduce a 31-day continuing resolution laser-focused on fixing the crisis at our southern border,” Johnson, Bice and Armstrong, of the Republican Main Street Caucus, said in a statement Sunday.
“Over the next several days, we’ll work together to build support for this CR, to pass the defense appropriations bill and to make progress on other appropriations bills that bend the curve on out-of-control spending,” they added in their statement.
It’s not clear if there are enough GOP votes in the House to pass the bill. Many members in the House Freedom Caucus have said they won’t vote for a continuing resolution unless it has conservative policies attached.
The temporary deal does not include Ukraine aid or disaster relief, and is likely dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The House will likely vote on this bill later this week.
Response to the bill came in quickly. Congressman Cory Miller tweeted out on X (formally known as Twitter): “I have not yet seen final deal, but I’m hearing that a CR will be pushed for 30-Day extension that will include H.R. 2 Secure The Border Act (which I voted for) minus the E-verify, and more Ukraine funding.
“If the House thinks adding HR2 which we DIRELY NEEDED sweetens the deal for me to vote clearance to add more Ukraine funding for the Senate neocon/neolibs to not oppose. I’m a HARD NO!”
His statement continued: “I’m sick of the DC backroom deals to appease 61 in the Senate and not going to play this game. Our job is to fund the U.S. and take care of the American people. I was not elected by overseas interests like others. Enough is Enough!” his statement concluded.
Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina shared Mills’ sentiment, tweeting: “I’m with Cory. No CR. Pass the damn approps bills. Roll back the crazy bureaucracy to pre-COVID levels. Now.”
Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana tweeted: “For months, I have made it very clear that I will not be supporting a CR. And this week is no different.”
“A CR is a continuation of Nancy Pelosi’s budget and Joe Biden’s policies. We were assured in January that we weren’t going to use the Democrats’ gimmicks to fund government and that we would deliver the 12 appropriations bills, thereby funding government responsibly and transparently, which is why I will be voting against the CR this week,” his statement on X concluded.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats on Sunday sought to play down the ramifications in Washington from last week’s indictment of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, while Republicans seized on the development.
In appearances on the Sunday public affairs show circuit, top Democrats noted the lack of firm evidence to back up Republicans’ allegations that the president directly profited off of or influenced his son’s business dealings while suggesting that the GOP is trying to distract from more important issues.
Hunter Biden was charged by federal prosecutors last week in Delaware for allegedly lying about his drug use when he bought a gun in 2018. Around that same time — as he later wrote extensively in his memoir — he was addicted to drugs.
He remains under investigation, prosecutors said in court this summer.
His attorney argued on Good Morning America on Friday that they believe the statute being used is “unconstitutional” in his case and the charges will be dismissed.
“Hunter Biden is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The matter is before a court of law right now. And let’s see how it proceeds,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said on ABC’s This Week.
Asked by This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl about whether Jeffries agreed with Hunter Biden’s attorneys that the charges wouldn’t “have been brought if this was not the president’s son,” Jeffries deflected.
“I think what’s more important is that President Joe Biden continues to lead us forward, to focus on the things that matter, to build an economy that works for everyday Americans that’s built from the middle out and the bottom up, and to lean into creating a situation where every single American in every single zip code can truly experience the American dream,” he said.
Jeffries told Karl that “if anything the indictment indicates that, as President Biden and his administration have consistently said, there is no interaction between the president, the administration and the Department of Justice.”
Former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile conceded on This Week that “there’s frustration” in Democratic circles over the latest indictment but cast the attention around it as fueled largely by Republicans looking to derail the White House.
GOP lawmakers have long been probing whether President Biden did anything illegal in connection with his son’s business dealings, but no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing.
The president’s aides have dismissed such suspicion as baseless partisanship.
On Tuesday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced House Republicans would launch an impeachment inquiry into the president.
When asked by reporters on Sunday about his response to the probe, President Biden said “lots of luck.”
“They’re looking to muddy the waters. The bottom line is, Democrats got to stay focused. Hunter Biden is not above the law. Like Donald Trump, he’s innocent until proven guilty,” Brazile said on This Week.
Polling indicates a large number of voters agree with Republicans’ line of attack. A Quinnipiac University survey earlier this month found that half of voters thought President Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings with China and Ukraine, while 40% thought the president was not involved.
Thirty-five percent of voters in that poll believed the president was involved and did something illegal, while 13% believe he was involved and did something unethical but nothing illegal.
Republicans, meanwhile, have hammered Hunter Biden’s charges while claiming the indictment he faces on the firearm offense lets the president off easy in light of their continued claims of other impropriety.
“This is the only charge that doesn’t affect Joe Biden,” former President Donald Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to his own criminal charges, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “This was the gun charge. But gun charges are very serious.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, N.Y., a member of House GOP leadership, touted the recently announced impeachment inquiry into the president.
“I believe transparency and good governance is very, very important for any Congress,” she said on Fox News Sunday. “I believe that the Biden family, including then-Vice President Joe Biden, was deeply involved in this nexus.”
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said his old colleagues risk overplaying their hand, however.
“The Republicans have spent so much time talking about Hunter Biden this year, and they could have been talking about spending,” he said on CNN, referencing the upcoming government funding deadline.
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman, Amanda Maile and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
