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The White House is cajoling media outlets to be more skeptical of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden, dispatching a memo Wednesday that points to Republicans who are skeptical of the effort.
The unusual memo was written by Ian Sams, a spokesman for investigations at the White House, and addressed to the leadership of news organizations one day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed Republican-led committees to open the inquiry.
CNN reported that the memo was sent to executives at their network and other major organizations, including The New York Times, Fox News, The Associated Press and CBS News.
Although political administrations commonly lean on media, the memo was a striking plea for news organizations to change course.
“It is a most unusual tactic for the White House to be this direct in lobbying the media to take the lead in setting the narrative,” said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
“It tells me the White House is not taking this lightly, that they are worried enough that they perceive a need to set the narrative before any investigative process starts,” he said. “Had the White House already made the case on its own that there is nothing there, none of this media arm-twisting would be needed.”
Mr. Sams’ memo lists quotes from Republicans who say they haven’t seen evidence that foreign business deals led by Mr. Biden’s son Hunter amounted to corruption or put money in the president’s pocket.
“It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” Mr. Sams wrote. “When even House Republican members are admitting that there is simply no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, much less impeachable, that should set off alarm bells for news organizations.”
Mr. McCarthy said Tuesday that he was opening an impeachment inquiry because evidence uncovered by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee documented millions of dollars flowing into Biden family bank accounts.
He said testimony shows that Mr. Biden, as vice president, served as the “brand” that Hunter Biden and associates used to lock in lucrative deals with businesses in China, Ukraine, Russia and other countries.
“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct. Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican. “They warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
The speaker scoffed at the White House memo to media outlets.
“It’s really concerning to me that the president, the White House is telling the press what to say. I think the press should be wanting to know the answers to ‘Did the president know when he went to dinner with his son that [Hunter Biden] would get a Porsche?’” he said.
The speaker was referring to evidence that Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev wired $142,000 to Hunter Biden in April 2014 so he could buy himself a sports car. Mr. Rakishev sent the money around the same time Mr. Biden, who was vice president at the time, dined with him at a Washington restaurant at Hunter Biden’s request.
Democrats say the president hasn’t done anything wrong and Mr. McCarthy is caving to the right flank of his party to preserve his speakership and keep his troops in line during thorny spending talks.
Vice President Kamala Harris sent a Biden 2024 campaign fundraising pitch Wednesday that said “MAGA Republicans” are jockeying for favor with former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican front-runner.
“It’s clear: They’re going to throw everything they have at Joe, because they know they can’t run against our record,” the campaign said. “Pitch in $5, $10, $25 — or whatever you can afford — to fight back against Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s vicious lies and baseless attacks on the President.”
Mr. Sams’ memo to the media outlets was accompanied by an addendum that rebuts key House Republican talking points.
It says an FBI document detailing a claim that Mr. Biden engaged in a bribery scheme with the founder of Burisma, a Ukrainian company that gave Hunter Biden a $1 million-a-year job on its board of directors, is simply a documentation of the claim and does not support any allegations.
The memo pointed to years of fact-checker articles and other reporting that says a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was not actively prosecuting Burisma at the time Mr. Biden and other Western powers labeled him corrupt and insisted on his ouster.
The memo says Mr. Biden did not play a direct role in family business deals and that payments to “shell companies” cited by Republican lawmakers mostly went to Hunter Biden’s business partners and no money flowed directly to the president.
“As you begin to cover the House GOP’s impeachment push more intensely, enclosed you will find a 14-page appendix that comprehensively addresses the 7 key lies House Republicans are suggesting they are basing an impeachment on,” Mr. Sams wrote. “We hope this document helps provide you with factual information useful in your reporting on their unprecedented, unfounded claims underlying an impeachment inquiry without any evidence of wrongdoing.”
Stephen Farnsworth, a politics professor and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington, said there is always “a lot of give and take among government officials and reporters over how to shape the news, and this is just another example of those contentious arguments about how to contextualize current events.”
“Stating the administration’s views via a memo like this is a very cost-effective way for the White House team to express itself,” he said. “Not only might the summary shape the current round of impeachment investigation stories, but the memo can also make news in its own right.”
If the White House likes the results, he said, it might send further memos.
The House’s presidential impeachment inquiry is the third in less than four years. It will thrust the House into what is likely to be an all-consuming impeachment investigation as Democrats and Republicans battle over government spending ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred questions about the impeachment and the memo to the White House counsel. She said the administration is willing to work on “real issues” for Americans and the inquiry should not disrupt efforts to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“Their basic duty is to keep the government open,” she said, pointing to the bipartisan spending deal struck earlier this year. “A deal is a deal. They should keep their word, and they should keep the government open.”
The White House memo accused Mr. McCarthy of flip-flopping. Mr. McCarthy insisted on a House vote to open an inquiry into President Trump but waived a vote on his inquiry for Mr. Biden.
Mr. Sams said that is a sign that Republicans are hurtling forward based on flimsy evidence.
“Covering impeachment as a process story — Republicans say X, but the White House says Y — is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” the memo says. “And in the modern media environment, where everyday liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth.”
• Susan Ferrechio and Kerry Picket contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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