Misleading Online Posts Distort Biden’s Joke at Meeting with Indian Prime Minister

President Biden and his family have been under intense scrutiny by House Republicans on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability for business dealings that they claim could “compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality.”

Among other things, House Republicans have accused President Biden and his son, Hunter, of accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian oil and gas company when Joe Biden was vice president and Hunter was on the company’s board. As we have written, that’s an unsubstantiated allegation based on an unverified report.

When asked about the bribery allegation earlier this month, Biden said, “It’s a bunch of malarkey.”

At a June 23 roundtable discussion at the White House with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CEOs of technology companies, Biden joked about the House Republican investigations. He opened the meeting by saying, “We — I was just thanking the — anyway, I started off without you, and I sold a lot of state secrets and a lot of very important things that we shared. Now, all kidding aside.”

The Republican National Committee’s research team posted a short clip of Biden’s opening remarks on Twitter. However, the edited video doesn’t include Biden saying he is kidding.