President Biden will redesignate Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist group — three years after removing them from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list — in response to repeated attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea. 

The Houthis will be placed on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list, which will trigger sanctions designed to prevent further attacks on global trade in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to senior administration officials. 

‘These attacks are a clear example of terrorism and a violation of international law and a major threat to life, global commerce, and they jeopardize the delivery of humanitarian assistance,’ a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday.

The decision comes as the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. The group said the attacks are in response to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Houthi fighters launched anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen into the Red Sea.

‘We’ve taken this action to pressure the Houthis to cease their terrorist activities, including missile and drone attacks against international shipping. The ultimate goal of sanctions is to convince the Houthis to de-escalate and bring about a positive change in behavior,’ the official said. 

The terrorist designation is set to take effect in 30 days. Officials emphasized that commercial shipments of food, medicine and fuel into Yemeni ports will be exempted so as not to deny humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people amid the civil war between the Houthis and the country’s internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government,

‘The administration is prioritizing the mitigation of unintended adverse impacts from this designation that may otherwise arise for the people of Yemen,’ a second official said. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both a foreign terrorist organization and as specially designated global terrorists in February 2021 as the Biden administration sought to make it easier to get humanitarian aid into Yemen.

The move was a reversal of former President Trump’s decision to place the Houthis on the FTO list over the strong objections of human rights and humanitarian aid groups in the waning days of his presidency.

The foreign terrorist designation barred Americans and people and organizations subject to U.S. jurisdiction from providing ‘material support’ to the Houthis, which the groups said would result in an even greater humanitarian catastrophe than what was already happening in Yemen.

An SDGT designation will also freeze Houthi assets, but unlike the FTO designation, it will not impose immigration restrictions on members, according to the State Department. The SDGT sanctions also will not touch people and organizations who provide ‘material support’ to the Houthis. 

‘It was the correct step in 2021 to revoke the foreign terrorist organization and SDGT designations for the Houthis,’ an administration official said, adding that Blinken made that decision ‘in recognition of a very dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.’ 

According to officials, the SDGT designation is part of a ‘broader effort’ to deter the Houthi attacks along with military action. 

The recent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping. Linda Thomas Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that 2,000 ships since November have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea.

Houthi militants have threatened or taken hostage mariners from more than 20 countries.

On Tuesday, U.S. forces struck and destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles that were prepared to launch from Yemen, CENTCOM said.

‘The recent attacks since November are really unacceptable,’ the official said. ‘We cannot sit idly by and watch what the Houthis are doing in the Red Sea and not recognize their actions for what they are.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Jacqui Heinrich and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Journalism is in chaos. It is an industry where only a tiny percentage of people dare hold different political opinions and more than 60% of journalists think the news business is going in the ‘wrong direction.’ Don’t take my word for it. Take theirs.

More than 1,600 journalists responded to a survey from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and the results are damning. Only 3.4% of U.S. journalists claim to be Republicans, with another 36.4% saying they’re Democrats. That’s more than 10 times more Democrats than Republicans. Or at least the ones who will admit they are on the left. 

More than half (51.7%) call themselves ‘independents’ and another 8.5% ‘other.’ Journalists have been getting these survey questions for more than 50 years and they have grown savvier. Many carefully list themselves in those other categories to avoid being called biased. So, just keep that 3.4% number in mind. Out of all journalists. 

Or let’s give the real number – 96.6% are not Republicans. 

That’s how Russiagate and Russian collusion get rammed down the throats of the American public like the scandal really happened. (Hint: It didn’t.) That’s how they cover for a president who is barely coherent much of the time and lies constantly about his family, his accomplishments and his past. (Hey Potus, say hi to Corn Pop for me.) 

Remember when the press tried to tally then-President Donald Trump’s so-called ‘lies?’ For President Biden, they call them misstatements or ignore them entirely. As Sgt. Muldoon explained in the John Wayne movie, ‘Green Berets,’ ‘Well… that’s newspapers for you, ma’am. You could fill volumes with what you don’t read in them.’

It’s only gotten worse since actor Aldo Ray read those lines. In 1971, one-fourth of U.S. journalists were Republican. In 50 years, journalism has essentially purged any political opposition in its ranks. And we get the result. 

Ninety-six-percent agreement is how the press tries to convince you that the border isn’t a problem when even Democrat mayors are screaming that it is. And their cities are only hit with a tiny portion of what red states have had to endure. 

And this is how you get an elite press that pretends ordinary Americans can afford food, rent and mortgages, when those same Americans tell you they can’t and 96% are worried about the economy. It’s so bad that one-fourth of Americans are ‘doom spending’ money they don’t have to compensate.

The 96% make no effort to cover the many failures of the Biden administration. The administration backed Ukraine, but not well enough for it to win. Our military is under near constant attack in the Mideast, and we barely respond as trade routes are conquered by terrorists.

Because the 96% are firmly in the Democrat camp. Heck, they went out of their way to elect President Biden and are trying to do so again.

Most journalists won’t even admit the news industry’s problems. If you dig further into this enlightening study, only 21.8% think any sort of ‘political orientation’ diversity is needed in their newsrooms. And it’s unclear if that means they think their outlets need to even be more liberal or more conservative. To emphasize that point, only 12.7% think ‘perceived bias and opinion journalism’ is a problem.

Journalism has become a dad joke. What’s the difference between ignorance and indifference? They don’t know and they don’t care.

The problems with our journo elite don’t stop there. Whites make up less than 60% of the U.S. population, but 82% of the news media. That doesn’t bother them either. Only about one-fourth of those studied think racial diversity is an issue in their newsrooms. 

More than eight out of 10 journalists said performing a government ‘watchdog’ role is important. Ironic for a field that didn’t notice when the secretary of defense went AWOL and disappeared for several days for surgery. 

Nearly all journalists (96.4%) have college degrees, a huge change from the 1982 study, about the time I started my news career when it was about 70%. Journalism used to be considered a trade that you could learn. Now, it’s a field that requires expensive college indoctrination, so they are unbothered by the biases they encounter every day.

As journalism has become an elite field, it has abandoned its role in serving the public. Local journalism has dried up or has almost no resources. National journalism is dominated by a few outlets like The Washington Post and New York Times and even the Post just had buyouts. Only 7.4% of those surveyed think reaching the widest audience is ‘extremely important.’

So much for the dad joke about newspapers being black and white and read all over. 

It’s no wonder why Americans have lost faith in the news media. And it will get substantially worse this election. The 96% have spoken.

As clarity increases at the top of the ticket, the real prize is winning in November. I’m a conservative Republican who served in the U.S. Congress for more than eight years. While I’m optimistic, I’m also realistic. Here are the five reasons Democrats are doing the right things to win in November.

GOTV

It sounds obvious, and it is, but getting out the vote (GOTV) is paramount. As others have said in the past, the world is ruled by those who show up. Realistically, only a portion of our friends and neighbors will actually take the time to vote.

Democrats have the overwhelming advantage because they lean heavily on unions – labor unions, public employee unions, etc. They’ve also figured out how to funnel mass amounts of money to nonprofits – many of them ostensibly nonpartisan. Some of it is legally sketchy given how much Democrats have politicized these tax-exempt entities, but they get away with it. 

How many right-leaning organizations do you know that actively work to get out the vote for Republicans? Even the Republican National Committee has little to show for this type of sustained effort.

ENTHUSIASM

It has long been said that enthusiasm wins elections. It’s still true. Democrats believe they can lean on abortion and ‘democracy’ to fire people up to vote. That formula certainly worked in 2022, when Republicans expected a big red wave. Democrats use ballot initiatives, such as abortion rights and the legalization of marijuana, to draw nontraditional voters out to the polls en masse. 

Democrats also excel at scaring voters with falsehoods. Their favorite trope is Republicans wanting to destroy Social Security and Medicare while throwing grandma off a cliff. Likewise, they continue to promise Donald Trump will do all the scary things President Biden is already doing – with little awareness of the irony. 

They say Trump will start wars, crash the economy, govern as a dictator, and use lawfare to destroy his political opponents. That extreme level of projection seems to be lost on much of the mainstream media. 

MEDIA PRESENCE

Speaking of the media, there is no doubt the traditional media continues to buoy up Democratic candidates and issues, while demonizing Republicans and conservatives. The propaganda is overwhelming if you know what’s really going on.

With some exceptions, the biggest media organizations still favor Democrats and blatantly suppress Republican or conservative messaging. Try finding an article from The Federalist in a Google search. Leftist talking points are everywhere, but intelligent arguments from conservative publications are mysteriously missing from the search results.

PROMISES

There is a structural advantage when one party gets to play Santa Claus with other people’s money and the other has to be the Grinch. Responsible spending will never be as popular as free money. When the core of your belief is that all problems can be solved by giving government more money, the biggest spender wins. It is enticing to a significant number of people to count on unlimited government support.

Remember in ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ when Pedro was advised to simply promise everything would be better by voting for him? He didn’t need to take a specific stance on a particular issue. He just needed to tell everybody he would solve their problems. He won handily. That formula works.

FROM THE HEART

It’s not good enough to just be right on the issues. The most successful candidates are the ones who speak from their heart, explaining why they believe what they believe. Democrats have traditionally convinced voters that because they are willing to spend more, they care more. Republican and conservative success will come when candidates get better at emphasizing that voters can spend their money more effectively than government can. Do it with sincerity and the authenticity shines through.

There is a saying in politics, ‘When you’re explaining, you are losing.’ Republicans are really good at talking about labor participation rates, unemployment rates, and technical details about how Iranian funding of the Houthis slows down 15% of the world shipping in the Red Sea. Important, but less important than showing people you care enough to make their lives better.  

In a constitutional republic, which is what we are in the United States, people are elected to dive deep into the issues. Republicans would do well not to cede the ‘we care more’ ground to the Democrats. If not, the Democrats will exceed expectations yet again.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is facing his GOP conference in person on Wednesday morning for the first time since congressional leaders released a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown. 

Lawmakers are facing a Jan. 19 deadline to fund some parts of the government – historically less controversial appropriations concerning military construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture; Energy and Water; Transportation and Housing and Urban Development – and a Feb. 2 deadline for the remaining agencies, including the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security.

But Johnson announced over the weekend that he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had come to an agreement to extend those respective deadlines to March 1 and March 8 to give negotiators more time to make a deal on funding the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2024.

The path forward on government funding is likely to be a main topic of discussion at House Republicans’ next weekly conference meeting, multiple sources speculated to Fox News Digital.

The meeting is currently expected for Wednesday morning despite weather conditions forcing the House to cancel its Tuesday evening votes.

One House GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital predicted ‘a showdown’ within the party over the short-term spending bill called a continuing resolution (CR). The aide told Fox News Digital they anticipate more resistance among the GOP than past CR votes have seen.

When Johnson last passed a CR in November, it saw 93 Republican defections. He pledged at the time to be ‘done’ with short-term CRs, a declaration met with enthusiasm by GOP lawmakers in the House.

The latest short-term extension is still likely to pass with support from both Republicans and Democrats, but not without criticism from Johnson’s right flank – criticism he’s likely to get a preview of Wednesday morning when GOP lawmakers huddle behind closed doors to discuss what’s next for their conference.

‘There is nothing new or novel about surrendering now and promising to fight tomorrow. Wasn’t the laddered CR supposed to provide some sort of leverage?’ Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X Tuesday.

‘Sadly, an agreement seems to have been made by 4-corners again, in violation of many [House GOP] promises,’ Davidson said.

The Freedom Caucus itself released a statement calling the deal a ‘surrender.’

‘The [House GOP] is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies,’ the group said.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz endorsed Donald Trump for president Tuesday night and called for the country to unify behind the Republican frontrunner.

‘I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States,’ Cruz said on ‘Hannity.’ ‘I look forward to supporting him enthusiastically.’

Cruz, who fiercely battled Trump in the 2016 election primaries, argued that the results of the Iowa caucuses showed there is only one viable Republican nominee.

‘[Iowa] was a dominating victory for Donald Trump: I’ve got to say, there’s no place like the Iowa caucuses. I know it intimately. The men and women of Iowa, they take their responsibility incredibly seriously. They scrutinize the candidates,’ Cruz said.

‘It’s an amazing process, and I’m a big believer in letting democracy play out. Well, last night it played out, and I got to say Trump’s victory was across the board… Congratulations to President Trump on that dominating victory,’ Cruz said. ‘And at this point, I believe this race is over.’

Trump earned 51% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, claiming a 30-point victory over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who slightly secured second place over Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Texas senator said that Trump’s landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses showed that the former president’s candidacy is ‘compelling.’

‘I’m a big believer we need to let the process play out: It did. And the results last night: 51% [of the vote, which included] 98 counties – that’s compelling. And at this point, I think the contrast needs to be on substance and policy and records [versus Biden],’ Cruz said.

Cruz noted he is also a top senatorial election target for Democrats as he seeks a third term in the November election.

‘I wear that as a badge of honor,’ he said of continuing to receive the ire and attention of Democrats as his re-election approaches.

‘If you are a left-wing Democrat, after Donald Trump, there’s nobody in the country you want to beat more than me. And Chuck Schumer has made clear I am his number one target in the country,’ Cruz continued. ‘The Democrats are going to spend $100 million this year trying to beat me and trying to flip Texas blue. Now, that ain’t going to happen.’

Trump also picked up an endorsement from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another former 2016 primary competitor, on Sunday.

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

Federal prosecutors say a brown leather pouch used by Hunter Biden to store a gun had cocaine on it.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked a judge to reject President Biden’s son Hunter’s efforts to dismiss gun charges because investigators found cocaine residue on the pouch used to hold his gun.

Prosecutors told the judge that ‘the strength of the evidence against him is overwhelming,’ rejecting Hunter Biden’s claims that he was being singled out for political reasons.

Hunter Biden previously made incriminating statements about his drug use in a 2021 memoir, but now investigators are saying the cocaine was found on the gun pouch after it was pulled from a state police vault last year.

A chemist with the FBI determined the residue was cocaine, prosecutors said.

‘To be clear, investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun,’ prosecutors said.

The president’s son pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in October, which accused him of lying about using drugs in October 2018 on a gun purchase form.

He has acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction during that period in 2018, but his attorneys say he did not break the law. Hunter Biden has since said he has stopped using drugs and is working to turn his life around.

Hunter Biden was charged with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. 

According to the indictment, ‘on or about October 12, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL Revolver with serial number RA 551363…knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm…in that the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.’ 

The indictment also states that ‘on or about October 12, 2018, through on or about October 23, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant Robert Hunter Biden, knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance…did knowingly possess a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver with serial number RA 551363, said firearm having been shipped and transported in interstate commerce.’ 

Fox News first reported in 2021 that police had responded to an incident in 2018 when a gun owned by Hunter Biden was thrown into a trash can outside a market in Delaware.

A source with knowledge of the Oct. 23, 2018, police report told Fox News that it indicated that Hallie Biden, who is the widow of President Biden’s late son, Beau, and who was in a relationship with Hunter at the time, threw a gun owned by Hunter in a dumpster behind a market near a school.

A firearm transaction report reviewed by Fox News indicated that Hunter Biden purchased a gun earlier that month.

On the firearm transaction report, Hunter Biden answered in the negative when asked if he was ‘an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.’

Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Conservatives in the upper chamber are rallying behind former President Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee after a landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

‘Trump’s victory tonight showcases once again the changing GOP base,’ Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. ‘This is a working class party now. The DC Republicans need to figure it out.’

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach, wrote on X: ‘Can we stop pretending this is an actual primary race and get to the business of defeating Joe Biden?’

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said, ‘It’s not going to be easy to defeat Joe Biden,’ in a post on X, adding ‘we need all hands on deck.’

In another post, Lee congratulated Trump for his swift victory in Iowa.

‘Beating Joe Biden won’t be easy. But it’s absolutely necessary. No other Republican has a shot at the nomination. It’s therefore imperative that Republicans start getting behind Trump. No time to lose,’ he wrote.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., also celebrated Trump’s win in a post, saying: ‘We are going to make America great again, AGAIN,’ and using the hashtag #TRUMP2024.

Meanwhile, the upper chamber’s GOP leader, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., remained quiet on the results. 

Leading up to the Iowa caucuses, more GOP senators began throwing their support behind Trump. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., endorsed Trump just hours after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum dropped out and endorsed the former president. They joined nearly two dozen GOP senators in endorsing Trump, including Sens. JD Vance of Ohio, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Rick Scott of Florida, Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The Fox News Decision Desk made the race projection for Trump at 8:31 p.m. ET, a half an hour after the caucuses got underway across the Hawkeye State.

The former president’s lightning-fast win in Iowa gave him a crucial early victory in his bid to return to the White House. His rivals for the nomination still include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came in a distant second in the Iowa caucuses, nearly 30 points behind Trump, and former Ambassador Nikki Haley, who came in third – close behind DeSantis.

‘We want to thank the great people of Iowa,’ Trump said in a caucus victory speech in Des Moines, the state’s capital and largest city.

Trump made history last year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments, including charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss, have only fueled his support among Republican voters.

Trump’s victory on Monday night was the largest margin in the history of Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, easily surpassing the previous winning margin of 12.8 percent set in 1988 by the late Sen. Bob Dole.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

The House Rules Committee will not consider the resolutions to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress as planned on Tuesday amid negotiations between House Republicans and the first son to schedule a deposition.

The committee was set to meet Tuesday afternoon to consider the resolutions that would hold the president’s son in contempt, setting up the potential for a full vote on the House floor on whether to recommend him prosecution.

The House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee last week passed resolutions to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for defying a congressional subpoena as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden. 

But on Friday, Hunter Biden’s attorneys offered to discuss scheduling a new deposition for the first son. Now, House Republicans are in negotiations to do so. 

‘Following an exchange of letters between the parties on January 12 and January 14, staff for the committees and lawyers for Hunter Biden are working to schedule Hunter Biden’s appearance,’ a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘Negotiations are ongoing this afternoon, and in conjunction with the disruption to member travel and cancelling (sic) votes, the House Rules Committee isn’t considering the contempt resolution today to give the attorneys additional time to reach an agreement.’

Hunter Biden, ahead of his subpoenaed deposition on Dec. 13, had offered to testify publicly. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, rejected his request, noting that the first son would not have special treatment and pointing to the dozens of other witnesses who have appeared as compelled for their interviews and depositions. Comer and Jordan vowed to release the transcript of Hunter Biden’s deposition.

The first son, though, defied the subpoena, ignored the offer and recently delivered a public statement outside the Capitol. At the time, he said his father ‘was not financially involved in my business.’

As the House advanced the resolutions to continue to take steps to hold Hunter Biden in contempt, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, last week asked that the committees issue a new subpoena. 

Lowell penned a letter to the committees on Friday, saying the initial subpoenas were ‘legally invalid’ as they were issued before the full House of Representatives voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry against the president. 

‘If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,’ Lowell wrote. ‘We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.’ 

Comer and Jordan sent a letter to Lowell over the weekend, stating that they would be willing to subpoena him a second time if that meant his cooperation in their probe.

‘The committees welcome Mr. Biden’s newfound willingness to testify in a deposition setting under subpoena,’ Comer and Jordan wrote.

‘Although the Committee’s subpoenas are lawful and remain legally enforceable, as an accommodation to Mr. Biden and at your request, we are prepared to issue subpoenas compelling Mr. Biden’s appearance at a deposition on a new date in the coming weeks.’

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

The European Union imposed sanctions on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Tuesday for his role in planning the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.

The EU also added Sinwar to the EU terror list. The Israeli military has been attempting to capture or kill Sinwar since the Oct. 7 attack, but has so far found no success.

‘[Yahya Sinwar] is subject to the freezing of his funds and other financial assets in EU member states. It is also prohibited for EU operators to make funds and economic resources available to him,’ the EU wrote in a statement.

Recent reports have suggested that Israel knows Sinwar’s location, but cannot strike against him because he has surrounded himself with Israeli hostages. The IDF has refused to comment on reports that it knows the terrorist leader’s location, however.

Israel believes there are at least 133 Israeli and foreign hostages being held in Gaza, though it is unclear how many of them remain alive.

Israeli forces took over Sinwar’s private compound in Gaza weeks ago, but said the leader had long since fled the residence.

Sinwar is believed to have fled his home for the relative safety of Hamas’ extensive network of tunnels that lie beneath Gaza’s major cities.

Reports from some hostages who have been released say Sinwar met with them a few days after they were taken from Israel into Gaza.

‘Sinwar was with us three-four days after we got there,’ Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, told the Davar news outlet. ‘I asked him how he wasn’t ashamed, to do such a thing to people who for years support peace? He didn’t answer. He was quiet.’

The White House said in July 2021 that a ‘system’ had been ‘established’ to ensure the identities of those who bought Hunter Biden’s artwork would remain anonymous for ethical reasons. 

However, the first son’s art dealer testified that a new agreement to stop the disclosure of Biden’s art buyers was not set up for several months following that statement and said the first son knew the identities of approximately 70% of those buyers.

George Bergès, the art dealer for Biden, took part in a closed-door, transcribed interview before both the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees earlier this month as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden.

Fox News Digital reviewed a transcript of Bergès’ interview.

House investigators, during his interview, showed Bergès a statement made by then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki on July 9, 2021.

‘After careful consideration, a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards,’ she said. ‘All interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by a professional galleries, adhering to the highest industry standards. Any offer out of the normal court would be rejected out of hand.’

Psaki added, ‘The galleries will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration, which provides quite a level of protection.’ 

When pressed further, Psaki stressed that ‘it would be challenging for an anonymous person who we don’t know and Hunter Biden doesn’t know to have influence — so that’s a protection.’ 

However, Bergès testified that at the time of the White House’s July 2021 statement, he had an agreement with Hunter Biden which called for him, instead, ‘to disclose to Hunter Biden who the purchasers of his art were.’ Bergès said that contract was agreed to in December 2020.

Bergès said that it was not until September 2021 that a new agreement with Hunter Biden was created. That agreement stated that ‘the gallery will not disclose the name of any buyers of artist’s artwork to artist or any agent of artist.’

Bergès stressed, though, that there was not a ‘White House-involved agreement,’ and that Hunter Biden did know the identities of approximately 70% of the buyers of his art.

Meanwhile, Bergès testified that he had spoken to President Biden both on the phone and in person.

Bergès told lawmakers that he spoke to the president ‘at the White House wedding during Hunter’s — Hunter’s daughter getting married.’ 

Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, got married at the White House on Nov. 19, 2022.

As for his phone conversation with the president, Bergès said, ‘My daughter finished camp, and he called to, you know, wish her, congratulate her for finishing camp and I answered the phone.’

Bergès’ testimony comes after the House formalized the impeachment inquiry against President Biden.

The inquiry is being led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith.

House Republicans are investigating any foreign money received by the Biden family, whether President Biden was involved in his family’s foreign business dealings and steps allegedly taken by the Biden administration to ‘slow, hamper, or otherwise impede the criminal investigation into the President’s son, Hunter Biden, which involves funds received by the Biden family from foreign sources.’

Republican investigators have suggested they are suspicious over whether Hunter Biden’s art career, which began in recent years, has led to any conflicts of interest between wealthy buyers and the White House.

‘The Biden White House appears to have deceived the American people about facilitating an ethics agreement governing the sale of Hunter Biden’s art,’ Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement earlier this month, calling the agreement a ‘sham.’