White House to send letter urging news outlets to ‘ramp up scrutiny’ of Biden impeachment inquiry

President Biden’s White House is planning to send a letter to some of the country’s most prominent news organizations — including CNN, the New York Times and Fox News — urging them to “ramp up their scrutiny” of House Republicans “for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday ordered an impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.

“Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings,” the speaker charged, claiming that “these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.”

In a draft letter to news executives obtained by CNN Tuesday, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, said the inquiry has no supporting evidence, which “should set off alarm bells for news organizations.”

However, the missive has raised eyebrows over concerns about the White House dictating editorial direction.

“This is not OK,” journalist Matthew Keys tweeted. “The White House should not be encouraging, influencing or interfering in the editorial strategies of America’s newsrooms, including CNN and the New York Times.”

He continued, “Now, any time the media DOES try to hold Republican lawmakers to account, those lawmakers can simply counter by questioning whether it’s actual journalism or something encouraged by the Biden administration.

“All this demonstrates is that the Biden administration has lost confidence in the news media — which I guess mirrors public sentiment over the last few years, too.”

Sams is expected to send the letter to executives at CNN, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press and CBS News, a White House source told CNN.

“The problem is they’re trying to influence coverage,” Keys concluded. “The government should never do that. It is inappropriate.”

Here’s what the Biden family business scandal impeachment inquiry would look like

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry Tuesday into President Biden — turbocharging congressional power to acquire documents and testimony about Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings while he was vice president.

House Republicans already have issued an array of demands to executive branch agencies relating to Joe Biden’s involvement with first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden’s international dealings — in many cases setting September deadlines that could soon escalate into litigation.

Hunter Biden claimed in his abandoned laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father.

The inquiry aims to answer a number of questions:

While vice president, Joe Biden used the pseudonyms “Robert L. Peters” and “Robin Ware” to communicate with staff members — leaving a paper trail of nearly 5,400 written records.

The House Oversight Committee demanded those communications from the National Archives with an Aug. 31 deadline, but a source tells The Post the agency did not comply.

Congressional Republicans are preparing to issue subpoenas to banks for accounts held by Hunter and James Biden — after previously subpoenaing some of the associates’ bank statements.

The records could show whether any money was transferred to Joe Biden from his relatives’ foreign income streams and also whether they covered a substantial portion of his expenses. It’s possible the House will later seek the president’s bank records too.

In the draft letter to news executives, Sams will ask the news executives to not fall prey to the notion of false equivalency.... (Read more)

Tweets mentioned:

https://twitter.com/MatthewKeysLive/status/1701806043473518600

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