Pelosi shuts down reporter asking question on Joe Biden's 'corruption'

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday refused to address allegations of "corruption" against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and quickly shut down a question from a reporter on the topic. 

A journalist at Pelosi's weekly news conference at the Capitol asked the California Democrat about "serious allegations of corruption involving Joe Biden."

But Pelosi cut off the reporter, identified as the Washington Examiner's Kerry Picket, before she could finish, saying: “I’m sorry, I’m not answering your question." 

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Pelosi is in the midst of coronavirus stimulus negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as they try to secure a roughly $2 trillion deal before Election Day that could deliver needed relief to struggling Americans and businesses.

“We’re talking about the coronavirus," Pelosi said.

"I don't have all day for questions," she added.

This is not the first time Pelosi had a contentious exchange regarding questions about Biden. On April 30, Picket asked about the sexual assault allegation Tara Reade made against Biden and whether Democrats had a different "standard" for Biden than for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for whom Democrats were demanding an FBI investigation over an alleged assault when he was a teenager.

"I respect your question," Pelosi said. "I don't need a lecture or a speech."

Pelosi went on to say she supports the #MeToo movement that gave way to victims of sexual harassment speaking out against powerful politicians, celebrities and media figures, but she said she stands by Biden because "there was never any record of this."

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Biden and his allies have dismissed a bombshell report by the New York Post last week that detailed allegedly corrupt business deals by Biden's son Hunter. Twitter and Facebook quickly acted to suppress the report from their platforms while much of the media ignored it.

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The Post published emails allegedly from Hunter Biden's laptop that purport to show that the younger Biden introduced his father, the then vice president, to a top executive at Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings less than a year before he pressured government officials in Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company’s founder. 

The New York Post report claimed that Biden, at Hunter’s request, allegedly met with the executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, in April 2015 in Washington, D.C. The revelation, if true, would undercut Biden's claim that he's "never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings."

The Biden campaign reviewed the former vice president's "official schedules" and said "no meeting ... ever took place."

On Wednesday, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back more on the claims leveled against Hunter Biden, particularly those first reported by the Post last week. The paper revealed that Rudy Giuliani provided them with emails allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden. 

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"The Attorney General of Delaware's office indicated that the FBI has 'ongoing investigations regarding the veracity of this entire story.' And it would be unsurprising for an investigation of a disinformation action involving Rudy Giuliani and those assisting him to involve questions about money laundering, especially since there are other documented inquiries into his dealings," Bates said in a statement to Fox News. 

"In fact, Donald Trump's own national security adviser warned the president that material furnished by Giuliani should be considered tainted by Russian interference."

Fox News' Brooke Singman and Brian Flood contributed to this report.