President Trump and CBS anchor Leslie Stahl sparred over the Hunter Biden laptop revelations during an interview that was to be aired Sunday on 60 Minutes but was instead uploaded directly to social media in an unedited form by the White House on Thursday.
A former business partner of Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, provided the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday with documents exposing the business relationship between the Biden family and now-defunct Chinese oil company CEFC. Bobulinski said in a statement that Hunter Biden and uncle James Biden “aggressively leveraged the Biden family name” in their business dealings.
Additionally, the New York Post revealed a trove of documents purportedly discovered on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. The FBI is in possession of the laptop and is using it as part of a money laundering investigation that began last year.
The president dug into the allegations during his interview with Stahl, which was originally set to be aired on Sunday.
This exchange between Trump and Lesley Stahl is insane. She repeatedly insists the Biden laptops “can’t be verified” so reporters shouldn’t talk about it.
Trump asks her why it can’t be verified.
Her answer: “Because it can’t be verified.” pic.twitter.com/cf9hcSGnrm
— Anders Hagstrom (@Hagstrom_Anders) October 22, 2020
“This is the most important issue in the country right now?” Stahl asks about two-thirds of the way into the interview.
“It’s a very important issue to find out whether a man’s corrupt who’s running for president, who’s accepted money from China, and Ukraine, and from Russia,” Trump responds. “Take a look at what’s going on, Leslie, and you say that shouldn’t be discussed?…I think it’s one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever seen, and you don’t cover it.”
“Well because it can’t be verified,” Stahl says. “I’m telling you—”
“Of course it can be verified,” Trump interjects. “Excuse me, Leslie, they found a laptop—”
“It can’t be verified,” Stahl repeats.
The White House released 37 minutes of uncut footage from the interview after Trump accused Stahl of bias. CBS slammed the decision in a press release on Thursday.
“The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter 60 MINUTES from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades,” the network said in a statement. ” Few journalists have the presidential interview experience Lesley Stahl has delivered over her decades as one of the premier correspondents in America and we look forward to audiences seeing her third interview with President Trump.”
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