Fox News Personalities Clash On Air Over Hunter Biden Probe
Fox News personalities engaged in a heated conversation on air over the Hunter Biden probe, after the GOP-led House Oversight Committee released a memo on Thursday alleging that President Joe Biden's son and at least two other family members received $1.3 million from foreign dealings.
Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway confronted Juan Williams, a contributing political analyst for the Fox News, alleging that he called for her termination when she was serving as an adviser during the Trump administration.
Hunter Biden has long been targeted by Republicans and conservatives who called for investigations into his foreign business dealings in an effort to determine whether his father was involved in those dealings when he served as vice president during the Obama administration.
The memo released Thursday by the House Oversight Committee, which is chaired by Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, alleged that Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, and Hallie Biden, who was married to Hunter's late brother Beau Biden, received payments from an associate who had ties with a Chinese energy company.
Rob Walker, the associate who knows Hunter Biden, allegedly received $3 million in 2017 from the Chinese company State Energy HK Limited, around two months after Joe Biden left his position as vice president.
Both Fox News contributors were discussing the probe targeting the Biden family during Thursday's segment on The Story when Conway at one point told Williams that he seems to support the Biden family's business dealings and alleged that he called for her firing over her past remarks about Biden.
"This happened while Joe Biden was still the vice president," Conway said, referring to the business dealings. "What did [the Chinese] think that they were going to get from him?"
She then referred to Hunter Biden's laptop which reportedly contained a 2015 email from Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, who was seeking a meeting with his father when he was vice president.
The laptop also contained personal photos of Hunter Biden doing drugs, according to Mediaite.
"What he did—showing himself using drugs, using a handgun—that's all possibly a felony. Don't look the other way. You know what, Juan? On this network, you called for my firing because of the ridiculous Hatch Act because I said ... Joe Biden was an old, rich, White, straight guy. He is.
"You said I should be fired for that and you're OK with the Biden family getting $3 million? That's rich," she added on Thursday.
The Hatch Act is a civil statute that bans executive branch employees in the federal government from engaging in political activity while acting in their official duties.
Williams then responded: "Well, I just think that when we look at these things, it's all legitimate," he said. "Investigate away. But it's all become so partisan, it just looks like a witch hunt. I mean going after Hallie Biden? It was Hunter and now it's Hallie. None of it ties to Joe Biden."
Several Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson have been supportive of the probe looking into the Biden family's business dealings, but other network contributors such as Williams and Geraldo Rivera have criticized it.
"How low will they go to smear president's family? Real classy move dragging late son's widow into it. Who's next godparent's? Newspaper delivery boy?" Rivera tweeted on Thursday.
The conservative Fox News contributor also wrote on Tuesday: "Hunter Biden has been investigated for almost five years. Aside from fact he's been a junkie dirtbag nothing remotely criminal has been uncovered."
Newsweek reached out via email to the White House for comment.
