White House press briefing live: Psaki answers questions on
Biden calls for gun control action following Boulder mass shooting
Vice-President Kamala Harris has today said Congress must unite to act in a more “permanent” capacity after a second mass shooting in the space of a week has left the country in mourning.
She told CBS: “I’m not willing to give up on what we must do to appeal to the hearts and minds and the reason of the members of the United States Senate.
“I served in that body, and I believe that it is possible, it has to be possible that people agree that these slaughters have to stop.”
Her comments come after Joe Biden called for ‘common sense steps that will save lives’ after the rampage in Boulder on Monday – that left 10 people dead – that occurred just a week after eight people were shot dead in Atlanta.
The violent attacks have plunged the president into the country’s hotly contested debate on gun control laws, with reform often encountered by significant political pushback.
“I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common sense steps that will save lives in the future and to urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act,” Biden said on Tuesday.
White House claims ignorance on major campaign issue of alleged $3.5m payment from ex-Moscow mayor’s widow to Hunter Biden
Press secretary Jen Psaki is “not familiar” with a major and repeated claim made by Senate Republicans and Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
Psaki was asked at today’s press briefing about the allegations made in a report by the GOP-controlled Senate Finance and Homeland Security committee that Elena Baturina, the widow of a man who had been mayor of Moscow until 2010, had wired $3.5m to an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
Trump and his campaign made repeated the allegations continuously throughout the election cycle, citing the report as its source.
Fact-checkers at the time tried to untangle the claims and focused on whether Hunter was a co-founder in the firm, but not whether the firm was paid $3.5m. PolitiFact said Hunter co-founded a firm called Rosemont Seneca in 2009, it couldn’t establish a link with Rosemont Seneca Thornton. The GOP report used a Financial Times story from 2019 that said Hunter was a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer George Mesires, did not respond to requests from PolitiFact to support his statements that Hunter was not a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
Psaki was asked today if those claims were accurate and, if so, what the $3.5m was for. While Psaki said she didn’t know anything about the claim, she seemingly already knew enough to say that it was not backed by any evidence.
“I’m not familiar with that claim, doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence. If you have evidence or specifics I’m happy to discuss it further,” she said.
When pressed that the source came from the Senate Finance and…
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