What a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.  

Joe Biden’s embarrassing gaffes came thick and fast this week – after the president managed to fumble a series of high-profile domestic events on the world stage.

His litany of errors – including walking into flag poles, addressing people with the wrong names and rudely forgetting to shake foreign official’s hands – is coupled with the devastating blow that the 80-year-old president’s approval rating stands at 37 percent.

This is five percentage points lower than it was in February, and crucially, it is 10 points lower than his fierce 2020 Republican competitor, Donald Trump, in the latest embarrassing poll from the Washington Post. 

Meanwhile, there is a percussive thunder of calls for him to drop out of the running for the next election, from both the left and the right of the political landscape. 

Many are seriously questioning how Biden will be able to face a long presidential campaign for the Democrats if he struggles like he did the past week – and how he’ll handle the prospect of another four years in office. 

Biden’s gaffes with the Brazilian president: Walking off stage, running into a flag, no hand shake, and failed translator earpiece

On September 20, ailing Joe Biden seemed to produce gaffe after gaffe while on the UN stage alongside Brazil‘s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula da Silva, 77, looked visibly irritated after the two leaders shared a stage to speak about their initiative to improve workers’ rights in each country – because Biden walked off without shaking his hand. 

Their diplomatic meeting got off to a labored start when Biden, 80, shuffled into a seven-foot Brazilian flag, leaving it teetering as he approached the podium. 

The president made a rambling speech about his ‘economic vision to rebuild our economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down’ while Lula watched on from his right flank. 

Meanwhile, during Lula’s speech, Biden fumbled with his headset, which he was using to hear a translated version. 

‘Can you hear me President Biden? This is an historical moment for Brazil, and for the US,’ Lula said at the start of his speech.

Biden continued to look confused as he grappled with the headset while Lula went on with his speech. At one point, Biden dropped his earpiece and raised his eyebrows in frustration.

International Labor Organization Director General Gilbert Houngbo took to the podium after the two world leaders, and Biden stooped to slowly grab a folder from the ground.

Houngbo shook hands with Biden and Lula in turn at the close of his speech – but Biden appeared to leave Lula hanging, awkwardly saluting the audience before shuffling off stage.

He appeared to be torn between giving a thumbs-up or a salute, and made a sloppy gesture combining the two.

As Biden turned his back on the Brazilian president, Lula looked annoyed and made a swiping gesture with his arm. They departed awkwardly from opposite sides. 

The series of mistakes and ill gestures were watched on the world stage – as the high-level meeting brought world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York.

President calls the Congressional Hispanic Caucus the ‘Black Caucus’ 

On September 22, the president made yet another public gaffe when all eyes were on him during a keynote speech in Washington, DC. 

Joe Biden mistakenly praised the ‘Congressional Black Caucus’ during a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 

The 80-year-old made the blunder during a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 46th Annual Gala. 

He had celebrated Sister Norma Pimental, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, for her gala award win moments before the mistake. 

Biden praised her for living the lessons based on the Gospel of Matthew before adding: ‘The Congressional Black Caucus embodies all those values.’

‘I know Sister Norma lives the lessons nuns taught me growing up,’ Biden said during the speech addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

‘Lessons based on the Gospel of Matthew: feed the hungry, care for the sick, welcome strangers.’

‘They echo what my dad taught me, and I mean this sincerely, my dad used to say, ‘Everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.’

The president added: ‘The Congressional Black Caucus embodies all those values,’ without correcting his mistake. 

Biden repeats the same story about a white supremacist rally twice at the same event 

As well as making in-the-moment mistakes, Biden was also berated this week for repeating the same story twice at the same event in New York City.  

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was then forced to answer for Biden’s concerning, ailing behavior in front of journalists.

She said that President Joe Biden was ‘speaking from his heart’ when he repeated the same story twice at a Wednesday night fundraiser in New York City. 

Jean-Pierre was twice asked Friday about Biden’s flub – said in a room without cameras rolling but with several journalists present due to rules about covering 2024 finance events. 

A pool report from the event, held at food security expert Amy Goldman Fowler’s home, noted that Biden talked about how the white supremacist rally – and former President Donald Trump‘s reaction to it – in Charlottesville in August 2017 inspired him to run for the White House in the 2020 cycle. 

‘A few minutes later, he told the story again, nearly word for word,’ the pool report said. 

NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell asked Friday, ‘Is it any concern that he would fully retell a story in the same space at the same event?’ as polls show that a super-majority of Americans are worried that Biden  wouldn’t be effective through a second term.

‘Sometimes I re-speak as well from here and retell a story,’ Jean-Pierre said with a laugh.  

‘But look, I think it’s important to note that the president was speaking, as you said at a fundraiser and he was speaking from his heart,’ she continued. ‘He was speaking about why he’s decided to do this.’

‘And you hear the president talk about this, it’s always incredibly emotional for him. Cause he didn’t have to. He went through an incredibly difficult time when he was deciding to jump into the race,’ she added. 

Biden refers to rapper LL Cool J as ‘LL Jay Cool J’    

Adding to the long list of problematic things the President did this week, Joe Biden referred to legendary rapper LL Cool J as a ‘boy’ after mispronouncing his name at the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Saturday night, LL Cool J and MC Lyte received Phoenix Awards for their musical contributions at the annual ceremony.

While on stage, Biden said: ‘Two of the great artists of our time representing ground-breaking legacy of hip hop in America, LL Jay Cool J, uhhh…’ – as the audience laughed at his latest gaffe over the rapper’s name.

Biden then added: ‘By the way that boy – that man’s got biceps bigger than my thighs.’

The footage of his speech was quickly re-posted by right-wing RNC Research on social media, where commentators swiftly pointed out that referring to African Americans as ‘boy’ is widely considered a derogative term. 

It was yet another butchered speech for the most powerful man in the world.  

Biden claims he’s been to ‘every mass shooting’ – which he has not  

Joe Biden also – erroneously – claimed to have been to ‘every mass shooting’ this week. 

The bizarre remark came days after he falsely claimed to have visited Ground Zero the day after 9/11, and have left many demanding to know whether he is lying or forgetting.

Speaking alongside vice-president Kamala Harris in the White House Rose Garden, he said his administration had been ‘working relentlessly to do something’.

‘After every mass shooting, we hear a simple message, the same message heard all over the country, and I’ve been to every mass shooting,’ he told his audience.

There have more than 500 mass shootings in the US this year and critics on social media were scathing in their response to the latest tall story.

‘Suspicious, if true,’ tweeted former US diplomat Alberto Fernandez.

‘Every weekend should be therefore spent in Chicago instead of Delaware,’ added Fox News contributor Joe Concha.

The news comes as a new poll from the Washington Post has Biden trailing former president Trump in a theoretical 2024 match. The two men are the frontrunners for their party’s nomination for president.  

But questions are growing louder on whether Biden should run as Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom appear to be positioning themselves to take the mantle. 

According to the WaPo polling this weekend, Biden’s approval rating stands at about 37 percent, similar to where it was in May, but five percentage points lower than it was in February.

Biden’s disapproval figure is 56 percent. The poll also asked whether, in retrospect, voters approve or disapprove of the job Trump did while in office.

Forty-eight percent say they approve and 49 percent say they disapprove. When he left office in January of 2021, Trump’s approval was closer to 38 percent.

The poll’s matchup of the two likely candidates showed Trump polling ahead of Biden by 10 percentage points – 52 to 42 – among registered voters.

The current resident of the Oval Office is also ailing in his policy record. Biden has spent many of the last several weeks touting his signature economic plan, ‘Bidenomics.’ But his earned approval rating on his handling of the economy has plummeted to 30 percent – the lowest of his presidency.

Some 75 percent of Americans believe the economy is ‘not so good,’ or ‘poor,’ according to the poll. A whopping 87 percent of Americans say that gas and energy prices are ‘not so good’ or ‘poor.’ And 91 percent of people say the same about food prices.

A plurality of respondents (44 percent) said they are not as well of financially as before Biden took office, while 39 percent said they are in about the same position, and 15 percent said they are better off.

The Biden administration has been blasted over plans to send out a letter to major news organizations demanding they probe the ‘lies’ of the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an official impeachment inquiry on Tuesday over allegations of corruption and involvement in son Hunter’s business dealings, setting off fiery reactions from Democrats.

Ian Sams, a special assistant to the president and senior advisor to the White House Counsel’s Office, penned a letter to both conservative and liberal-leaning outlets, slated to be distributed Wednesday in an apparent attempt to influence their coverage. Among outlets targeted are CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press and Fox news.

‘It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,’ Sams wrote.

Sams added the impeachment inquiry should ‘set off alarm bells for news organizations,’ but commentators both left and ring-wing have condemned the interference. 

Journalist Matthew Keys tweeted: ‘This is not okay. The White House should not be encouraging, influencing or interfering in the editorial strategies of America’s newsrooms, including CNN and the New York Times. 

Keys added: ‘The media is not the problem. The bigger problem, at the moment, is what the White House is apparently planning to do, if Oliver Darcy’s reporting is correct (I have no doubt it is). 

‘And that is the kind of short-sighted move that gets Donald Trump re-elected next year.’ He was referring to CNN’s media reporter Oliver Darcy, who first broke news of the letter. 

The White House is demanding the news media avoid what Sams and the Bidens believe is false equivalency reporting. 

‘Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,’ Sams wrote. 

He describes the Republican Party as full of ‘every day liars and hucksters’ who ‘peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox. 

Sams calls them ‘process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth.’

The letter is going to be sent out to high-level executives at CNN, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press and CBS News, among others, according to CNN. 

Sams – who worked on Biden’s transition team and has previously worked for the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton – was heavily critical of the impeachment inquiry in a tweet posted earlier Tuesday, calling it ‘extreme politics at its worst.’   

‘House Republicans have been investigating the President for nine months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing,’ he wrote. 

He added Kevin McCarthy’s ‘own GOP members have said so. He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip-flopped because he doesn’t have support.’ 

McCarthy officially announced he will begin an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a shock statement accusing the president of an ‘abuse of power and being involved in a ‘culture of corruption’ over son Hunter’s foreign business deals. 

‘House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct,’ McCarthy said, speaking at the Capitol. ‘Taken together these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.’

‘These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. And they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives. That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,’ he noted.

‘This logical next step will give our committees, the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. That’s exactly what we want to know the answers.’

Republicans have charged Biden and his family made millions off shell companies Hunter Biden formed when his father was vice president. Hunter had business deals with an energy company in the Ukraine, received a discounted stake in a private-equity firm in China, and did consulting for a Romanian real-estate magnate.

The president has denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings. But Republicans claim at least a dozen Biden family members could be involved in a scheme to benefit financially from Biden’s public office. 

House investigators are expected to issue subpoenas for the bank records of the president and his family. The GOP also claim Biden sat in on at least 24 calls with Hunter’s business partners and was referred to as ‘the big guy’ by Hunter’s business associates. And they say Joe Biden used pseudonyms to discuss his activities related to Ukraine with his son Hunter during his time as vice president.

An inquiry is the first step in the impeachment process. It is when evidence is gathered for the articles, or charges, of impeachment against an official. 

It is a massive step with many pitfalls, including infuriating Republican moderates and many GOP senators, who are skeptical of the issue and causing friction with the White House as budget negotiations are underway. Congress faces a September 30 deadline to fund the government or it will shut down.

McCarthy, however, is under intense pressure from the conservative wing of his party to make such a move, including threats from some of his own GOP lawmakers to remove him from the speakership.

The White House has repeatedly denied Biden has conducted any wrongdoing. The president himself has said he was not involved with any of Hunter’s business deals. 

A sleepy Joe Biden saw his rambling Vietnam press conference brought to a sudden end on Sunday night with a mic cut and jazz music playing him off the stage, like he went too long in an awards speech.  

Biden was mid-flow and answering questions from journalists when he was interrupted and forced to shuffle away and head backstage. 

‘We talked about stability, we talked about the Third World, excuse me, the Southern Hemisphere has access to change. It wasn’t confrontational at all….’ Biden said as he rambled on. 

Suddenly, the booming voice of his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, could be heard butting in.

‘Thank you everybody. This ends the press conference. Thanks everyone,’ she said as she brought the presser to a close. 

All the while, Biden continued to speak, not realizing his mic had long since been muted. 

In another bizarre twist, sleepy jazz music then began to play over the loudspeaker, with the 80-year-old still seemingly trying to answer questions as he continued to speak into the microphone.

As the president tried to answer a few more questions, the music grew louder prompting Biden to put away his leather-backed folder and shuffle offstage, disappearing behind a black curtain. 

Earlier in the press conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, following the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, Biden risked upsetting his Vietnamese hosts with quotes from the Robin Williams movie Good Morning, Vietnam – which he seemed to think was a song.

The president arrived in the country after two days at the G20 summit in India and admitted he was struggling to tell if it was day or night.

‘Good evening, everyone,’ he told a press conference.

‘It’s already evening, isn’t it? It’s around the world in five days – it’s interesting.

‘One of my coworkers said, ‘Remember the famous song ‘Good Morning Vietnam’?’ Well, good evening, Vietnam’.’

In what was supposed to be a show of stamina – Biden is circumnavigating the globe in five days – he ended the 26-minute event by saying, ‘I’m going to go to bed.’ 

The president had been asked if he was concerned that there was no agreement on fossil fuels that came out of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi.

He regaled reporters with a story he says is from a John Wayne movie and features the ‘Indians’ – not the ones he just met with – who don’t buy it when a Union soldier says ‘everything will be good’ if they go back to the reservation. 

‘And the Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying dog-faced pony soldier.’ Well, there’s a lot of lying dog faced pony soldiers out there about global warming. But not anymore,’ Biden said. ‘All of the sudden, they’re all realizing it’s a problem,’ the president said, whispering into the mic.

He’s used ‘lying dog-faced pony soldier,’ once at a 2020 campaign event in New Hampshire and at an event in Connecticut in June, where he also muttered, ‘God save the Queen, man.’ 

The president’s clumsy comments were leapt on by opponents and slammed by critics as further signs that he would struggle to cope with a second term.

‘Biden gets VERY confused during his ‘press conference’ in Vietnam,’ tweeted RNC Research.

‘And Democrats wonder why Biden isn’t polling better,’ added former  Trump senior adviser Jason Miller.

Others cringed at his misplaced attempt at humor warning that his jokey reference to the Vietnam War risked upsetting a key ally in the struggle against China.

‘Oh good, reference the darkly satirical title of a movie about a horrible and bloody war that still looms largely in Vietnam’s psyche,’ tweeted FuriaDiDonna.

‘So he’s making a joke in Vietnam about a catchphrase (not a song) in a (great) movie that’s about the US being at war in their country??’ added Booker9e.

‘The Joe Biden Comedy Hour,’ wrote Robert Phyithree.

‘Stick around, it will only get more ridiculous and sublime.’ 

The 1987 film was one of the biggest hits of the year, telling the story of Airman Adrian Cronauer who arrived in Saigon to work as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio as the war intensified in 1965.

Starting each show with his catch phrase ‘Good morning, Vietnam!’, Cronauer, played by Williams infuriates his superiors with his rock and roll playlist and satirical commentary on their conduct of the war.

It won Williams the funniest actor prize at the American Comedy Awards and its soundtrack, featuring the Beach Boys, James Brown and the Searchers, went platinum.

Sunday’s bizarre moment came at a press conference that started more than an hour late and kicked off by the president acknowledging that his aides told him who he would be calling on.

‘They gave me five people here,’ Biden said, returning to his custom of both calling from, and speaking about, the list apologetically. 

‘I’m just following my orders here,’ he said at another point, as he looked at his list to call another news organization or name, as reporters in the audience yelled and waved their hands frantically to be called on. 

The questions were China-heavy and Biden skipped answering queries when they were piggybacked on another question – so he didn’t address Russia and North Korea going into business together, nor Ukraine’s discontent with the G20 statement on the war, which didn’t name Russia as the aggressor. 

The choice of journalist also appeared to have Biden mostly ignoring a group of U.S. print and TV reporters who were girding to get into domestic concerns like his low poll numbers due to his advanced age and a possible indictment of his son, Hunter, on a gun charge.

Those polls show a broad concern about his age going into a second term, with a survey last week from AP-NORC showing that 77 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of Democrats, believe Biden is too old to run for reelection. 

A Wall Street Journal poll out Monday had similar findings, with 73 percent of voters saying Biden is too old to run again, including two-thirds of Democrats. 

White House aides pointed to this whirlwind trip as evidence that Biden is up to the job. 

He later joked that the schedule was ‘no problem.’ 

‘I can imagine. It is evening, I’d like remind you,’ a BBC reporter quipped to the president. 

At one point, Biden grabbed the hand mic and started walking.

He moved toward the side of the stage where one of the five chosen reporters was standing, but it briefly gave the appearance he was abandoning the press conference. 

Every reporter on the list was a woman, something that wasn’t lost on a journalist from the independent U.S.-backed Voice of America. 

‘Thank you Mr. President. I hope you didn’t think that calling only on women would get you softballs tonight,’ she told him. 

Biden said that wasn’t the case. 

‘Oh I know better than that. If you sent me a softball, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’d probably strike out even worse,’ Biden joked.

After Biden answered one of the two questions posed to him by VOA, he told the journalists, ‘I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed.’

A White House official later defended Biden’s performance saying he ‘substantively answered questions’ from several reporters during the press conference.

‘The President substantively answered questions from 7 reporters. This is a distraction, and it would do your readers a good service to dive into his answers on China, relations with Indo-Pacific countries, human rights and climate change instead,’ the official said in a statement.

Revealed: Delaware prosecutor sent email to Joe Biden’s secret address

By Josh Boswell For Dailymail.com

Updated: 16:04 EDT, 23 August 2023

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Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed the house would probe what went wrong with the response to the Maui wildfires that have left 115 and over 1,100 missing. 

‘I’m very concerned about the response,’ the speaker said during an appearance in upstate New York on Wednesday. 

He went on: ‘We still have hundreds of individuals that are missing. I think there’s gonna have to be a congressional investigation in response of what happened. How could we lose that many Americans in today’s age? And the federal response seems very delayed.’ 

The California Republican then knocked the president for originally not offering comment and taking over a week to visit the devastation. 

‘The president’s response – to have no comment? That’s unacceptable. So I’m going to work with committees too to look at investigating what went on so that never happens again as well.’ 

No single cause has yet been determined for the fires, but experts suggest power lines were not shut off despite high winds and may have caught fire when they fell. 

The GOP-led House has launched oversight investigations into nearly everything under Democratic President Biden’s purview – from the Afghanistan withdrawal to the Biden family business dealings to a broad range of federal agencies. 

The number of missing people  in Maui ticked up to 1,110 on Wednesday – two weeks after the deadly inferno ripped through the island. Already the fire is the deadliest since the 19th century as the death toll is expected to rise. 

The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map, with over 3,000 structures burned to the ground and an estimated $5 billion’s worth of damage. 

The FBI is working to release a list of the missing later this week – and is calling on relatives of the missing to send in DNA samples to help identify the charred bodies that have been discovered. 

A new Associated Press report details how the only paved road out of a West Maui neighborhood and onto the highway was blocked off. Those who drove around the barricade were safe. Many of those who were caught up in a pile-up just behind the blockade died in their cars while others tried to run for safety.

Meanwhile, Maui’s top emergency management official resigned last week after finding himself in hot water for failing to sound the island’s alarm system as the blaze closed in.  

Herman Andaya, the administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, had defended his decision not to sound the alarms as he said he feared coastal residents would think the ringing signaled a tsunami and flee inland toward the flames. 

‘The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded,’ he said. 

In slow signs of recovery, Maui public schools began the process of reopening and highways have allowed traffic again as of Wednesday. Additional cadaver dogs arrived that day to help teams searching for the remains of the dead. 

But cell service and access to electricity has been spotty at best, and survivors say they’ve struggled to find housing, medical aid and daily necessities. 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has pledged one-time $700 payments for necessities to nearly households affected by the fires – and over 6,000 have applied so far. 

DailyMail.com revealed on Wednesday that FEMA responders dispatched to Maui have been lodging in luxury at $1,000-a-night hotels a 45 minute drive away from fire-ravaged town of Lahaina. 

FEMA surged up to 1,000 agents to the Hawaiian island to assist with the response, and teams have checked in at three five-star hotels – the Fairmont Kea Lani, Four Seasons, and the Grand Wailea Astoria where past guests include members of Hollywood’s elite. 

And amid growing criticism at the perceived lack of federal support, Biden and First Lady Jill visited Maui on Monday – and were met with mixed reactions. 

The visit was always going to be contentious, and the president’s motorcade was drove past both boos and jeers, with some showing their middle finger and waving Trump 2024 flags.

The president’s speech promised Maui the federal government’s support would be ‘with you as long as it takes.’ 

‘The country grieves with you, stands with you, and we’ll do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild, and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place.’ 

But otherwise Biden did little to endear himself to the traumatized islanders, delivering a rambling speech referencing the death of his wife and baby daughter in 1972, and later telling an anecdote about a 2004 kitchen fire in his Delaware home.

Hunter Biden‘s business partner helped supply military vehicles to Putin-backed forces that invaded Ukraine, a report by transparency activists claims.

Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev, who sent Hunter $142,300 to buy a Porsche in 2014, hired him as a consultant to invest millions in the US, and was even photographed at an intimate meeting with Joe Biden, according to emails, records and their friend Devon Archer’s congressional testimony.

Rakishev, 44, is allegedly co-owner of Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering (KPE), which makes Arlan mine-resistant armored platform (MRAP) vehicles, according to a new report by transparency group the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery (KIAR), based on Rakishev’s leaked emails.

The tank-like armored trucks were spotted on the streets of Mariupol in April 2022, driven by Chechen troops that invaded Ukraine alongside Russian forces.

Hunter’s former business partner Rakishev has entered the spotlight of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s shady business dealings, with his payments to Hunter and meetings with Joe detailed in a new memo released by the Committee Wednesday, supported by subpoenaed bank records.

KIAR’s report says Rakishev has co-owned the company since 2015 with a South African defense contractor, Paramount Group. 

His alleged ownership has previously been obfuscated behind a complex corporate structure, but has now been revealed after his emails were leaked.

The Kazakh businessman, reportedly worth over $300 million, has close ties to his country’s military. His father-in-law Imangali Tasmagambetov was the former Defense Secretary, and was on the board of another firm that supplied military trucks to Russia, the report said.

The armored Arlan truck manufacturer KPE has denied a close relationship with Russia’s military, saying they gave one Arlan vehicle to Putin’s National Guard in 2019 but that ‘further cooperation with Russians did not continue.’

They also claimed that ‘Kenes Rakishev and Imangali Tasmagambetov have nothing to do with the enterprise.’

But KIAR’s report, based on corporate records and Rakishev’s leaked emails, says he controlled two companies that own KPE: KazPetroMash and InterTechAudit. 

Emails in Cyrillic allegedly show Rakishev approving transactions by the two firms. 

Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is under US sanctions for his involvement in Putin’s Ukraine invasion, was quoted gushing about ‘my dear brother Kenes Rakishev who has always been a patron of our important projects,’ in a July 2016 article on Russian-language news site Grozny-Inform. 

On March 17, 2022, Kadyrov posted a video on Russian social media site VKontakte showing the storming of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which included a shot of an Arlan armored car allegedly sold by Rakishev’s company.

A November 2022 report by military news site Oryx claimed that Chechen forces ‘include a small number of Arlan MRAPs (South African designed Marauder MRAPs) from Kazakhstan’.

A photo obtained by KIAR shows Joe, Hunter, Rakishev and then-Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov at an intimate meeting. 

Hunter’s business partner and former ‘best friend in business’ Devon Archer testified to the House Oversight Committee that Rakishev met with Joe and his son at Washington DC restaurant Café Milano in Spring 2014.

In April, Rakishev sent $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company equally co-owned by Hunter and Archer, the former friend of the First Son said.

Archer claimed Hunter was selling the Biden ‘brand’ to his foreign business partners, flexing his political influence by having Joe talk to Hunter’s business partners on speakerphone during meetings.

In a press release Wednesday along with the House Oversight Committee’s memo on Rakishev’s payments to the First Son, Republican committee chairman James Comer said Hunter was selling access to the president.

‘During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine,’ Comer said.

‘It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself. And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered. This is made clear by meals at Café Milano where then-Vice President Joe Biden dined with oligarchs from around the world who had sent money to his son.

‘It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States. The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money trail and obtain witness testimony to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised or corrupt, and our national security is threatened.’

The Justice Department on Sunday told a New York judge they do not wish to see Hunter Biden‘s former business associate imprisoned before he testifies about their schemes.

Devon Archer is due to testify to Congress, behind closed doors, on Monday.

It was suggested that the Justice Department wanted him arrested first, but on Sunday they wrote a letter clarifying that he must be free to testify before any such steps are taken.

The Department of Justice sent a letter to a judge Saturday urging an expedited sentencing for Archer – for an unrelated fraud conviction – in what was seen as a last-minute attempt to stop his testimony. 

Republicans say the move by DOJ was an attempt to ‘intimidate’ Archer, who they view as being central to providing information that is critical to their ongoing investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

Top Republican James Comer said Sunday that DOJ’s highly unusual action on a Saturday was an attempt to ‘intimidate’ the witness he says key to getting to the bottom of the president’s son’s shady overseas business deals. 

He said on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures: ‘It’s odd that it’s right before he’s scheduled to come in to have an opportunity to speak in front of the House Oversight Committee and tell the American people the truth about what really went on with Burisma.’ 

Hours later, the Justice Department issued a new letter saying they never intended to see Archer locked up before he testified to Congress. 

Joe Biden on Sunday appeared the picture of calm on Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, despite reports that Archer plans to implicate Joe in his son’s foreign business schemes.

Archer is expected to provide details that will challenge the White House’s insistence that Joe Biden never had any knowledge of or involvement in his wayward son’s business affairs. 

A source close to Archer confirmed reports that he is set to testify about meetings he attended with his and Hunter’s foreign business partners, where the First Son allegedly had Joe Biden on speakerphone. 

DailyMail.com reported exclusively this week that Archer is ‘in hiding’ after receiving ‘threats’ leading up to his bombshell testimony. 

But such testimony appeared to be far from the president’s mind who was seen relaxing on the sands in 80 degree sunshine during the 10-day trip to his beach home.

Since taking office, Biden has spent 360 days, some 39 percent of his presidency, on vacation with hundreds of days outside of Washington D.C.

The president and his wife Jill could be seen strolling to the private beach of North Shores which is for residents only and accessible only with a permit.

Biden could be seen carrying a towel over his shoulder together with a reusable shopping bag from a local bookstore. 

Dressed in a navy T-shirt, baseball cap and blue swimming shorts, he walked alongside his wife who was also seen wearing a violet cover-up, white top and baseball cap.

Biden’s staff notes that the presidency follows him wherever he goes, so the president will continue to receive security briefings and have access to aides who join him on the trip. 

Last week, Biden managed to avoid making any new comments about his son’s predicament, after a plea deal that would have had him avoid jail time fell apart under withering questioning by a federal judge. 

As he lazed about on the sands, it appeared as though Joe was leafing through some government papers, while Jill looked to be engrossed in a hardback of sorts. 

The content may be nothing compared to what the House Oversight Committee will be hearing from Archer on Monday, particularly on ‘whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens and if the president was involved in his family’s business dealings.’ 

Archer’s expected testimony Monday comes after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy indicated this week that he is mulling opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden for his ‘lies’ about his involvement in Hunter’s dealings.

Archer, 48, was subpoenaed on June 12 by the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Hunter’s businesses and whether he and other members of the Biden family improperly traded on their connections.

It is unclear the motivation behind Archer’s decision to testify on Monday. He previously cancelled on the committee at least three times in recent weeks. 

Chairman Comer told Fox News’ Larry Kudlow that Archer is appearing before his committee now because after he was subpoenaed, he ‘doesn’t have a whole lot of options.’

He said Republicans planned to hold him in contempt if he did not comply with the subpoena, which doesn’t ‘look good on your resume.’

‘At the end of the day, I think that Archer wants to do the right thing,’ he said. ‘I think he wants to set the record straight and he is going to have an opportunity to do that.’

A close associate of Archer told the New York Post he is testifying about his time working with Hunter because he believes it is his ‘civic duty.’ 

It comes as Archer is also facing legal troubles of his own and is expected to go to prison shortly.

He was sentenced to one year and a day in prison in February 2022 for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars, in connection with the issuance of $60 million in bonds. 

He is on the hook with his co-conspirators for $43.4 million in restitution over the fraud.

Archer’s lawyer confirmed his upcoming meeting with Congress, adding that Archer had previously testified to a federal grand jury about his dealings with the Biden family – likely referring to Delaware prosecutor David Weiss’ criminal investigation into the First Son.

‘Devon Archer believes strongly in the rule of law and the democratic system, and is prepared to answer the Committee’s questions just as he has already answered similar questions from a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice, and several other government agencies in their investigations concerning the Biden family,’ said attorney Matthew Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner.

‘There have been many leaks and much speculation about Mr. Archer’s potential statement to the Oversight Committee, but next week, Mr. Archer will get to speak for himself.’

The White House has maintained the president was never ‘in business’ with his son, but the GOP have ramped up their investigation with testimonies from whistleblowers and a slew of other evidence. 

Archer, 48, and Hunter both graduated from Yale and were friends for decades. Hunter has reportedly described Devon as his ‘best friend in business.’

Together they formed Rosemont Seneca Partners back in 2009, along with Christopher Heinz, the son-in-law of former Sen. John Kerry, kicking off a period of international business deals and jet-setting. 

Archer and Hunter Biden each landed lucrative seats on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, despite Hunter not having particular expertise in the field. The firm brought in a reported $11 million through the arrangement, based on information gleaned from Hunter’s infamous laptop.

They were photographed golfing with then-Vice President Biden back in 2014.

Hunter’s ex-business partner is planning to testify to the committee that Hunter used this speakerphone call tactic at least two dozen times, according to a New York Post report published Monday.

One alleged example is after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai on December 4, 2015.

Devon allegedly claims Hunter was with him, Burisma owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, and executive Vadym Pozharskyi at the bar of the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach.

Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi allegedly asked Hunter: ‘Can you ring your dad?’

According to the Post report, Hunter called Joe, introduced ‘Nikolai and Vadym’, and told his father they ‘need our support’.

Three days later Joe flew to address the Ukrainian parliament on the ‘poison of cronyism, corruption, and kleptocracy.’

At the time, Zlochevsky was under criminal investigation in Ukraine, and had his assets seized. But in March 2016, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired.

The FBI first learned of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, full of incriminating data, in October 2019, an IRS memo shows.

The memo, written by senior IRS Criminal Investigation official Gary Shapley in 2020, reveals how senior law enforcement officers sat on the treasure trove of evidence from the First Son’s computer and waited months before handing over mere excerpts to investigators working the case.

It also directly contradicts an open letter from 51 top former intelligence officials published weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election which dismissed the laptop as having ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation’.

Shapley and his subordinate, who both recently became whistleblowers to Congress, believe that almost three years later they still haven’t received all the data on the hard drive – which could incriminate not only Hunter but his father too.

Shapley told lawmakers that his document, dated October 22, 2020, memorialized a meeting that day with his IRS Criminal Investigation team, FBI cyber forensics experts, and a team of prosecutors leading the criminal probe into Hunter Biden.

Over three pages it lays out a timeline of when the FBI first got hold of Hunter’s laptop he abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop, how investigators proved it belonged to the First Son and had not been doctored, and how IRS special agents were left waiting for months to get their hands on emails that could aid their investigation.

‘I prepared this document. It was to memorialize a meeting that we had with the prosecution team, plus the FBI CART team, which were the computer analysis team,’ Shapley told staffers for the House Ways and Means Committee in sworn testimony published alongside the memo last week.

‘They determined, because it was abandoned property, that it could be turned over via a document request.’

Hunter brought three damaged Mac computers to John Paul Mac Isaac’s store in Wilmington, Delaware, in April 2019, signed documents for their repair, and never returned.

Mac Isaac became worried when he found disturbing content on the devices, and got his father Steve to approach the FBI field office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, six months later on October 9, according to his book, American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth.

With a slightly differing date, Shapley wrote in his memo that on October 16, a ‘Richard Steven McKissack’ reported to the Albuquerque office that ‘his son is in possession of a sportsman [Hunter Biden’s codename used by investigators] computer that had not been retrieved and was not paid for…said it contains evidence of white collar crime’.

On November 6, 2019 FBI Special Agent Joshua Wilson got the device number of the MacBook Pro and determined it was Hunter’s by matching it to his Apple ID and iCloud account.

Shapley also wrote that financial records place Hunter at a cigar shop near Mac Isaac’s store the same day he was alleged to have dropped off the computer, and phone records show the shop ‘called Sportsman [Hunter] and Sportsman called the shop around this time.’

The IRS CI Supervisory Special Agent also cited ‘other intelligence’ which ‘shows Sportsman was in the area’ at the time.

Shapley confirmed Mac Isaac’s claim that FBI agents took the laptop and an external hard drive from him on December 9 2019. Four days later the IRS got a warrant to delve into the computer to look for evidence in their tax crimes probe.

A month later on January 6, 2020, ‘forensic computer people at FBI started analysis’ on the devices, the memo says.

The memo said that the forensics team were able to unlock some encrypted messages on the laptop when they found a password Hunter saved on a business card.

On January 27 IRS investigators were handed their first pieces of evidence from the laptop from forensics experts, ‘provided on a USB drive’. But by the end of March that year the special agent running the case said he still had not seen the hard drive itself.

The delay began to raise suspicions among Shapley and his team that prosecutors including Delaware Assistant United States Attorney Lesley Wolf were withholding information.

Shapley told House committee staff that his subordinate, a fellow whistleblower and IRS Criminal Investigation special agent running the investigation, ‘was not given a Cellebrite report, which is just what they call the output of the FBI CART team analysis, and was questioning whether or not the investigators were provided everything.’

‘We don’t even think we got a full, even a redacted version. We only got piecemeal items,’ Shapley said. ‘It was an example of pertinent, relevant evidence that a prosecutor kept from an agent.

‘We don’t really know what the full contents of that laptop ever had on it.’

In authenticating the information from the laptop, the FBI forensics experts told investigators they were able to determine when each file was created, to make sure Mac Isaac had not added any items after receiving his MacBook.

Prosecutor Wolf also told investigators ‘We have no reason to believe there is anything fabricated nefariously on the computer and or hard drive’ and that ‘There are emails and other items that corroborate the items on the laptop and hard drive.’

Former New York Mayor and Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani also obtained a copy of the hard drive from Mac Isaac, and in September 2020, gave the device or material from it to the New York Post, which started publishing stories based on the explosive photos, texts and emails.

On October 19, 2020, just two weeks before the presidential election, 51 top former intelligence officials published a letter in Politico warning the story ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation’.

The letter emphasized the officials’ ‘understanding of the wide range of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine US national security’ and cited a USA Today story about an alleged FBI investigation into whether Hunter’s laptop was ‘part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia’.

Signers included former CIA directors Leon Panetta and John Brennan, ex-Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, ex-Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director Doug Wise, former National Security Agency deputy director Rick Ledgett, and many other spy agency leaders.

The letter was cited by major media organizations dismissing the story.

Despite Shapley’s memo showing the IRS, FBI and Justice Department had known the laptop was authentic for almost a year, law enforcement agencies stayed silent as voters went to the polls in November 2020.

Hunter himself denied knowledge of the laptop, saying it ‘certainly’ could belong to him, but that ‘I really don’t know’ in an April 2021 CBS interview. ‘It could be that I was hacked, it could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me,’ he said.

In March 2021 DailyMail.com hired the founder of the FBI’s cyber forensic unit, Brad Maryman, to analyze a copy of the hard drive. He and his colleague concluded it was authentic and had no evidence of tampering.

Last year the Washington Post, New York Times and CBS news conducted similar analyses and finally admitted that at least some of the material from the laptop was authentic – even as Hunter’s lawyer Kevin Morris reportedly circulated slides to journalists promoting a conspiracy that fake material had been mixed in with Hunter’s data.

In April this year, the House Judiciary Committee received testimony from former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell, one of the 2020 letter signers, claiming that it was orchestrated in part by Joe Biden’s campaign advisor and now-Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

In an interview in May Blinken said the letter ‘wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it’.

Judiciary Committee Republicans said it was a ‘concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family’ and ‘was a grave disservice to all American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy.’