Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the legislation is directed to “relatives of senior government officials with respect to business dealings with overseas adversaries.”
Partial transcript as follows:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you about your oversight responsibilities. You made it clear that you were going to be interested in Hunter Biden and his financial entanglements with foreign countries, including China. I want to put up a Washington Post front page this morning detailing Jared Kushner’s ties to the Saudis. “After helping the prince rise, Trump and Kushner benefit from Saudi funds.” A $2 billion investment in Kushner funds from the Saudis. We know that the president – former president Trump also received funds related to the Saudi golf tour. Senator Ron Wyden said these financial entanglements deserve an investigation. Are you going to investigate that as well?
COMER: I think everything is on the table. Listen, we’re investigating Joe Biden. We – we know that Joe Biden said during the presidential campaign that he had no knowledge of his son’s business interests. He was not involved. He didn’t take advantage of it. We have evidence that suggests otherwise. And this is very worrying. You know, Americans are outraged that China flew a balloon over the United States. Americans are outraged that China is trying to buy up farmland. I think Americans would be outraged to know how much money the Biden family received from China. And for what, we do not know exactly. So that’s something that concerns us. But we are also concerned about a legislative solution. Now, I don’t disagree with the Democrats and their critics of the previous administration. We have a problem here that requires a legislative solution. That’s why this Biden investigation is so important. There is a legislative solution to this, and it can be bipartisan. Democrats have complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the foreign business dealings of the entire Biden family. We need to know what is allowed and what is not. We must have strict ethics laws. And we need to dramatically increase disclosure laws in America. So I think this investigation is going to be very important in solving a problem before it gets out of hand.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And so, but just to be clear, you think that — that should apply to Kushner and Trump as well as the Bidens at this point?
COMER: I think when we talk about passing legislation to set a limit on where you can be with relatives of senior government officials in terms of doing business with adversaries overseas, that would apply to everyone. We need to fix this problem before it gets worse under the next administration. The Democrats complained about the Trump administration, but we obviously complain about the Biden administration. The difference between Jared Kushner and Hunter Biden is that Jared Kushner actually sat down with was interviewed. He was questioned by investigators. It has therefore already been investigated. So far, Hunter Biden’s lawyers, the President’s lawyers, the President’s White House, they’re doing everything they can to block our investigation. Hopefully the Biden family will be as cooperative as Jared Kushner with our investigation as they have been with the January 6 investigation and all other Trump administration investigations. So I think that’s a problem. I think there can be a bipartisan legislative solution. But we can’t get to that point until we know the extent of what the Biden family’s influence peddling has involved, especially as it relates to communist China.
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