Devon Archer reveals Hunter Biden’s role in ventures relied on his father’s political network—like 20+ speakerphone meetings with Joe Biden—while Archer admits regulatory access, not expertise, drove deals like a 2011 fund tied to foreign business. Carlson frames this as an "access economy," where insider connections bypassed traditional barriers, with Archer conceding the Biden name was pivotal. A 2011 letter from Biden thanking Archer for facilitating deals underscores the VP’s direct involvement, raising questions about whether his official power blurred into private gain. The episode exposes how Washington’s regulatory system rewards proximity over merit, leaving ethical gray areas unaddressed. [Automatically generated summary]
Well, at the end of the day, he had a career in Washington, graduated Yale Law School, and had a very big network in D.C. and brought that know-how and understanding of D.C. and ultimately the Biden brand.
And there was a time, maybe 10 years ago, when private equity, maybe like AI now, was just one of those terms people were throwing out, I'm in private equity!
But the mechanics, having done it, coming from a business background yourself, are kind of complex.
But again, the initial idea around the business is that they were going to provide the government insight and an additional network to raise capital and then deal with regulatory issues that you might have at the corporate level.
So the reason I'm asking this is because, it's not to give the Bidens a pass, hardly, but when people say, well, there's some question about whether Hunter was trading on his father's name, if you live in Washington, like, that's the whole city right there.
I think at the end of it, so when you look at the whole, there are people that maybe were, you know, sons or relatives or brother-in-laws of other high-ranking officials.
But I think what we ran into and...
With what Hunter ran to, it was almost like an Icarus issue.
So he got a little, it was too close to the sun.
It was too good to be true.
And the connections were too close and the scrutiny too much.
And it ended up destroying, you know, it left the wake of a lot of destruction in businesses over a number of years.
So Joe Biden, who is very much a product of Washington, of course must have known that he was calling in to effectively a business meeting that his son was having.
I mean, he must have understood that that was kind of what his son was selling.
But like, I guess my question, just to keep it to the facts, Joe Biden, then the sitting vice president, knew that there were Hunter's business associates in the room.
Yeah, I think I can definitively say at particular dinners or meetings, he knew there were business associates and he, you know, we, or if I was there, I was a business associate too.
So I think, or if any of the other colleagues from the D.C. office or the New York office were there.
So yeah, at times there were.
To be completely clear on the calls, I don't know if it was an orchestrated call-in or not.
It certainly was powerful, though, because if you're sitting with a foreign business person and you hear the vice president's voice, that's prize enough.
I mean, that's pretty impactful stuff for anyone in the world.
I guess I'm pivoting against the lie that I'm hearing people tell with a straight face, Congressman Goldman, for example, that we don't really know what was going on.
Really?
You're taking a call from the vice president and you put it on speaker.
It's not just, hey, dad, I'm in a meeting with some buddies.
Joe Biden I met the first time probably at the 2000 convention.
I think it was in L.A. and then Boston was 2004. So those two times I probably shook hands as they made kind of the power circles around the, you've been to them, through the skyboxes.
Following that, really when our partnership started in 2008, 2009-ish, conversation started, that's when I re-met Hunter and actually had a sit-down and a meal with him, talked about the transition from lobbying into strategic advisory and then some type of coalescence around having a private equity fund that would have this unique access and understanding of a regulatory environment in DC. Again, got it.
This is from the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, to you personally, and it's personalized here at the bottom.
Devin Archer, Rosemont Seneca Partners.
That was your partnership with Hunter Biden in Georgetown.
Dear Devin, I apologize for not getting a chance to talk to you at the luncheon yesterday.
I was having trouble getting away from hosting President Hu.
Hu Xintang, who was running China at that point.
I hope I get a chance to see you again soon with Hunter.
I hope you enjoyed lunch.
Thanks for coming.
Sincerely, Joseph R. Biden Jr. P.S. Handwritten.
Happy you guys are together.
So there are many levels here.
But here's the Vice President of the United States saying to you, a man in his mid-30s, who's not a government official, I'm sorry I was occupied with the guy who runs the world's largest country.
Listen, it was kind of the beginning of our partnership, and he was thanking me and thanking Hunter, I think, at the end of the day for bringing this idea of this government regulatory strategic advisory business into the private equity world.
And I think he was excited about the prospects for Hunter, and he was just thanking me.