In the wake of what should have been a devastating testimony about the scandalous nature of Hunter Biden’s business dealings from his former partner Devon Archer, the left-leaning mainstream media quickly tried to downplay anything Archer told the House committee.
Specifically, they all glommed onto a quote that Archer said that Hunter sold “the illusion of access” to his father, then Vice President Joe Biden, to their business clients, but not any actual access to the VP. The only problem is the now-released transcript of Archer’s testimony reveals he never said that!
Last week, Archer testified in a closed-door setting to the House Oversight Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the Biden family’s shady foreign business dealings and whether they’re tied to the president.
It did not take long for lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to leak details from the testimony to the press, with Republicans ramping up corruption allegations towards Biden while Democrats rejecting the notion that there were any bombshell revelations.
But there was one leak in particular from Democrats that made the rounds in the news cycle, that Hunter Biden was selling the “illusion of access” to his father.
The so-called “illusion of access” Archer allegedly spoke about to lawmakers was to frame Hunter Biden as merely using his father’s status as the then-vice president to entice business associates but that there was no financial gain from the perception Hunter was promoting.
However, the transcript from the meeting showed that the “illusion of access” wasn’t terminology coined by Archer but rather Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, N.Y., who used that phrase in a question that Archer only partially agreed with.
“So is it fair to say that Hunter Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father?” Goldman asked, according to the transcript.
“Yes,” Archer initially responded.
“So when you talk about selling the brand… it’s not about selling access to his father. It’s about selling the illusion of access to his father. Is that fair?” Goldman followed.
“Is that fair? I mean, yeah, that is — I think that’s — that’s almost fair,” Archer responded.
“Almost fair. Why almost fair?” the Democrat asked.
“Because there — there is — there are touch points and contact points that I can’t deny that happened,” Archer replied.
So, as you can see, the term that Hunter was selling, “the illusion of access,” never actually came out of Archer’s mouth. It was put there by Goldman, and yet Dems and left-friendly news sources ran with it as if it was a direct quote from Archer rather than, as the transcript now reveals, him “sort of” agreeing with Goldman’s portrayal of the facts.
Virtually no one from the lamestream media acknowledged that the “illusion of access” phrase originated from Goldman and not Archer, with the exception of CBS News’ Catherine Herridge.