A House Democrat got called out by a reporter over his characterization of closed-door testimony by Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, now that the transcript has been released.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told journalists that Archer informed lawmakers on Monday that Hunter Biden sought to give the “illusion of access” to his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to get undue credit for things. This led to multiple news outlets publishing headlines that trumpeted that phrase.
CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge brought up Goldman’s version of events when reporting on the release of Archer’s lightly-redacted transcript on Thursday.
“In fact, when you look at the transcript, what you see is that phrase ‘illusion of access’ is in Dan Goldman’s question — it’s actually NOT what Devon Archer testified to,” Herridge said.
CBS calls out Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman's lies on the Devon Archer testimony:
"In fact, when you look at the transcript, what you see is that phrase 'illusion of access' is in Dan Goldman's question — it's actually NOT what Devon Archer testified to." pic.twitter.com/xBajOaKvnF
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 3, 2023
Indeed, as the transcript shows, Goldman pressed the witness about the younger Biden selling the “illusion of access,” a phrase which Archer did not repeat and described as being “almost fair.”
Archer said there were contacts that he could not deny, even though he stressed that “nothing of material was discussed.” Hunter Biden put his father on speaker phone roughly 20 times during meetings with business associates, according to Archer, who said these calls were “signal enough to be powerful” despite only sticking to casual topics such as the weather. In addition, Archer said the elder Biden attended some dinners with his son’s foreign business associates.
“What we learned from Devon Archer: Then VP Biden sat in on his son’s business dinners and was often on speaker phone with his son during business meetings. This isn’t the illusion of access — it is access,” Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) said in a post to X.
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Goldman, who served as lead counsel in the first Trump impeachment, has emerged as the Democrats’ most vocal defender of President Biden and critic of GOP-led inquiries.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) even called Goldman “the new Adam Schiff,” a reference to the California congressman now running for Senate whom House Republicans censured on accusations that he misled the public amid investigations into former President Donald Trump.
“He is the leading defense attorney in Congress for the Biden family,” Donalds added in an interview with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. “He’s going to spin and do whatever he needs to do.”