On Saturday, Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, suggested that Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, may have played a role in America’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
“The purpose of the U.S. military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland. Not to aimlessly fight some random war that’s arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5 million from Burisma,” said Ramaswamy, speaking at a campaign event to a crowd of about 60 Iowans in Council Bluffs.
As he campaigns across Iowa to secure the Republican nomination, Ramaswamy has been openly criticizing the United States’ foreign policy towards Ukraine.
“Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt? Absolutely it was. Do I think that it has some relationship towards our posture toward Ukraine? I think it’s likely that it does,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy’s comments were an apparent reference to an alleged bribe involving both the president and his son. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has claimed he was told by a whistleblower — whose claims are uncorroborated — about a tip regarding a $5 million payment from a foreign national to Joe Biden, then vice president, and a family member “relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
Republicans later identified the other family member as Hunter Biden, who served at the time as an attorney and board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
The White House has denied the president had any participation in his son’s business dealings.
*Vivek Ramaswamy’s claim that Joe Biden received a $5 million payment has not been substantiated. It relies upon testimony and lacks physical evidence at this time.