Did Trump Use Trade Talks to Push for Biden Investigation? The White House Won’t Say

Ron Sachs/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

While the House of Representatives continues its impeachment inquiry over Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, the White House is refusing to say whether the president used sensitive negotiations with China to push for a similar investigation of the Bidens by that country.

As the Ukraine scandal ramped up several weeks ago, Trump tweeted about Hunter Biden’s business involvement in China. Trump publicly called on China to investigate the matter—just days before the US and China were set to resume high-stakes trade talks. Trump ultimately announced that he’d reached a partial trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Thursday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro declined to tell CNN whether the Trump administration brought up the Bidens during the negotiations.

“You don’t have a right to know what happens behind closed doors in the administration,” Navarro told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.

Sciutto followed up, asking, “Did you bring up investigating the Bidens as part of the negotiations?”

“You’re asking me what happens in the White House behind closed doors,” Navarro replied.

Watch a clip of interview below:

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate