Following Congressman Bradley Byrne’s (AL-01) Monday announcement that he will file a resolution calling on three U.S. House committees to investigate the foreign business dealings of Hunter Biden, U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) — a vocal supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential bid — rushed to attack the Republican Alabama congressman.
Byrne’s resolution calls for investigations into whether Hunter Biden’s business dealings resulted in improper conflicts of interests and whether his work affected United States foreign policy or a foreign government or foreign entity’s response.
In a statement, Byrne called Democrats out for turning “a blind eye to the Biden scandal,” adding, “If the same facts in the Biden case occurred with one of President Trump’s children, Democrats would have already launched a full-scale investigation.”
Later on Monday, Jones addressed Byrne’s move on Twitter. Byrne is one of the Republican candidates running to unseat Jones in 2020.
Alabama’s junior senator shared a tweet by ABC News’ Matthew Dowd, which asserted, “If you are someone who has raised concerns about Hunter Biden and don’t also raise big concerns about the Trump children, then you fundamentally lack inegrity [sic] and don’t really care about building a more moral and less corrupt world.”
Jones commented, “I think Matthew is speaking to a certain Alabama congressman who says he is filing a bill to investigate the Bidens. I agree with you @matthewjdowd. We should all want the same things – the facts, the truth, and the rule of law – not pandering partisanship trying to be relevant.”
To be clear, Dowd’s tweet was published on Sunday, the day before Byrne announced his resolution, so Dowd was not actually referring specifically to Byrne.
After Jones’ Monday comments on Twitter, Yellowhammer News reached out to Jones’ office for further comment. Yellowhammer News specifically asked, “Does this mean Senator Jones supports an investigation into Hunter Biden and/or Vice President Biden?”
The Senate office forwarded the inquiry without response to Jones’ campaign.
Jones’ campaign then declined further comment from Jones himself.
However, Lizzie Grams, Jones’ campaign press secretary, provided a statement that she released on behalf of the campaign earlier in the day — on Monday morning.
“Information about Joe Biden and his son has been around for a long time and all alleged improprieties have been debunked by numerous sources,” Grams claimed.
“It is sad that Congressman Byrne would debase the integrity of his office by pandering to the President with such a desperate attempt to elevate his secondary status in the Republican primary,” she added.
Jones’ campaign then did not respond when specifically asked the same question for clarification: “Does this mean Senator Jones supports an investigation into Hunter Biden and/or Vice President Biden?”
Reached for reaction to Jones’ tweet by Yellowhammer, Byrne decried that Jones was once again “quick to come to defense of his buddy Joe Biden.”
“Doug Jones has been silent on the issue of impeachment, but he is quick to come to defense of his buddy Joe Biden,” Byrne stated.
“Just like when he voted against Judge Kavanaugh, spoke out in favor of gun control, and opposed strong pro-life protections, Doug is once again totally out of touch with Alabama,” he continued. “This is just further proof that Doug Jones doesn’t represent Alabama. That’s why I’m running for the Senate to Dump Doug and send a conservative fighter to the Senate.”
Nice to finally hear from you on the Biden investigation issue, Doug.
However, as usual you’re not only wrong on this but working against the will of the Alabama people.
@ me next time https://t.co/NiKjvhRAjG
— Bradley Byrne (@BradleyByrne) October 14, 2019
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
