Pelosi claims she has 'respect for whistleblowers' despite dismissing testimony as 'ridiculous clown show'
'No, I'm not confident about what the whistleblower said,' Pelosi declared
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday that she’s "not confident" in congressional testimony by IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler about Hunter Biden, calling the Republican-led hearing a "ridiculous clown show."
Pelosi was asked by CNN’s "State of the Union" anchor Dana Bash whether politics played a role in Wednesday’s hearing, when Ziegler came forward for the first time, joining his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, to allege political interference in the prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal probe into the president's son.
"Well, since you referenced the hearing, what a ridiculous clown show, again, on the part of the Republicans," Pelosi told Bash.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Nancy Pelosi and IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler (Fox News)
BIDEN FAMILY, HUNTER ASSOCIATES RAKED IN OVER $17M FROM FOREIGN SOURCES, IRS WHISTLEBLOWER TESTIFIES
While Bash was asking about Wednesday’s hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Pelosi referenced a moment during a hearing the following day with Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., though she fumbled his name.
"What did they do, bring in Joe Kennedy talking about censorship, that he's being censored as he's talking to the world in a congressional hearing and showing pictures that had nothing to do with the essence–," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I think you mentioned Robert F. Kennedy," Bash corrected Pelosi before asking again about the whistleblower’s testimony.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi speaks at a press conference on the reintroduction of the Freedom to Vote Act, outside the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
"Do you feel confident no politics played at DOJ?" Bash asked the congresswoman.
"The U.S. attorney was a Trump appointee. A Trump appointee," Pelosi responded. "Now, I have respect for whistleblowers, but the fact is that, from the basis of that hearing, they didn't even have a fair shot at what they came to say in light of the clown show that was going on with pictures and Robert Kennedy and his ridiculous presentation."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"No, I'm not confident about what the whistleblower said," she said. "The U.S. attorney was a Trump attorney. This is their opinion. It was not the opinion of the others there."
Joe Ziegler testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability during a hearing regarding the criminal investigation into the Bidens, on Capitol Hill on July 19, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
During Wednesday's hearing, Ziegler told Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., that Hunter Biden, his family members and business associates received over $17 million due to business dealings in China, Ukraine and Romania.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Those deals included multimillion-dollar payments to Biden family-linked companies from 2014 to 2019, including $7.3 million from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Ziegler and Shapley both allege that officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden, and that decisions in the case were influenced by politics.