On Sunday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed her lack of confidence in the congressional testimony given by IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler regarding Hunter Biden. Pelosi dismissed the Republican-led hearing as a “ridiculous clown show.”
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Dana Bash asked Pelosi if politics played a role in the hearing where Ziegler, alongside his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, alleged political interference in the federal probe into President Biden’s son.
Pelosi criticized the hearing, mentioning a moment from a different hearing involving Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., though she stumbled over his name. She referred to the hearing as a “clown show” due to the inclusion of unrelated pictures and Robert Kennedy’s presentation.
Bash tried to refocus the conversation on the whistleblower’s testimony, asking if Pelosi had confidence that politics didn’t influence the Department of Justice (DOJ). Pelosi responded by pointing out that the U.S. attorney involved was a Trump appointee, implying potential bias. She expressed doubts about the whistleblower’s claims, emphasizing that their opinions may not have been shared by others present at the hearing.
During the Wednesday hearing, Ziegler asserted that Hunter Biden, his family, and associates received over $17 million from business dealings in China, Ukraine, and Romania. These deals included substantial payments to companies linked to the Biden family between 2014 and 2019, with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings alone paying $7.3 million.
Both Ziegler and Shapley claimed that officials at the Justice Department, FBI, and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden and that political influences affected decisions in the case.