Carlson interviews Bobulinski
Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of an interview conducted by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who had Tony Bobulinski—a former business partner of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter—on his program Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday night. Tucker Carlson’s show is an opinion cable network program, so we are labeling this as opinion, especially until the Bidens respond to it and more facts emerge that are able to be verified. But Mr. Bobulinski’s accusations are very specific, have not been covered extensively in the media, and the Democrat-Gazette thought readers should make up their own minds about his story.
PART ONE TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: So, Tony, your connection to this deal came through James Gilliar, who’s an English businessman who you — correct me if I’m wrong — you had met while doing business in various different countries. You talked about doing deals.
Then on Christmas Eve 2015, he sent you the following text which explained the deal with China that he wanted you to become part of, and I just want to read the first sentence of this. “There will be a deal between one of the most prominent families from the U.S. and them constructed by me.”
TONY BOBULINSKI, FORMER BUSINESS PARTNER OF HUNTER BIDEN:
CARLSON:
BOBULINSKI: So, James Gilliar was referencing something that he had been working on throughout 2015 with Rob Walker and a Chinese company called CEFC, and he had been traveling around the world developing that deal and that text was just the culmination of him making me aware that the deal was moving forward.
CARLSON: So, he doesn’t say, I want to do a deal with you and me and Hunter Biden — or even you, me, Hunter Biden and Jim Biden. He said, between one of the most prominent families from the United States. He’s talking about the Biden family.
BOBULINSKI: Yes that’s correct. It was never about Hunter Biden or Jim Biden. It was about the family name, the Biden legacy.
CARLSON: At this point, Joe Biden was the sitting vice president of the United States.
BOBULINSKI: Yes that’s correct.
CARLSON: OK, so I want to fast forward to 2017, early May, 2017, and at this point you’ve agreed to become part of this deal. Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, the vice president’s brother, James Gilliar, and they’re asking you to meet with the former vice president in Los Angeles.
Describe the context; describe why they wanted you to meet with him.
BOBULINSKI: OK. Across those days in Los Angeles in May of 2017 that you’re referencing, I met with Hunter Biden multiple times at the Chateau Marmont and Rob Walker, and the discussion was they wanted me to sit down with their father, just to meet him and, at a high level, discuss the Biden family and how they approach things.
CARLSON: Let me ask you to pause. Will you explain to us who Rob Walker is?
BOBULINSKI: Yeah. Rob Walker was a partner in Rosemont Seneca and had a very close relationship with the Biden family and had developed and been working with James Gilliar throughout 2015 and 2016 to develop this deal with the Chinese and CEFC.
CARLSON: What was his relationship with the Biden family?
BOBULINSKI: So my understanding is Rob had worked in prior administrations and had a very, very close relationship. In fact in Rob Walker’s own words in an email to me he states that you know everyone was contributing or telling me how they wanted to participate in Sinohawk, and in an email he basically states in his own words to me, I want to continue acting as a proxy for Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and the Bidens around the world. CARLSON: The Biden family. BOBULINSKI: The Biden family.
CARLSON: So they want you to meet with the former vice president in LA.
BOBULINSKI: CARLSON:
BOBULINSKI: That’s correct. The former vice president was flying in, and we were to meet at the
Beverly Hilton; the Milken Conference was going on, obviously one of the top three conferences in the world for anybody that’s a global investor or developing different humanitarian causes and a variety of things.
And he was, Joe was flying in to speak about the cancer and the Moonshot stuff he was working on, and Hunter and everyone was in town and they wanted to coordinate me meeting with Joe.
And so it was set up for the night of May 2nd at The Beverly Hilton. I first met with Hunter Biden and Jim Biden and just had a light discussion where they briefed me that, listen, my dad’s on the way, and you know we won’t go into too much detail on the business front, but we’ll just spend time talking at a high level about you, your background, the Biden family, and then you know he’s got to get some rest because he’s speaking at the conference in the morning.
CARLSON: So this was at night. The vice president had just flown across the country. He’s an older man; he’s got work to do. BOBULINSKI: Correct. CARLSON: But they carved out a piece of his schedule for you to meet with him. Why would they do that?
BOBULINSKI: Because they were sort of wining and dining me and presenting the strength of the Biden family to get me more engaged and want to take on the CEO role and develop Sinohawk both in the United States and around the world in partnership with CEFC.
And I, as you can imagine I’ve been asked by a hundred people the last month you know, why would you be meeting with Joe Biden, and
I sort of turn the question around to the people that asked me, why at 10:38 on the night of May 2nd would Joe Biden take time out of his schedule to sit down with me in a dark bar at The Beverly Hilton, sort of positioned behind a column so people couldn’t see us, to have a discussion about his family and my family and business at a very high level where Jim Biden sat and Hunter Biden participated in?
I’m irrelevant in this story. They weren’t raising money for me. There was no other reason for me to be in that bar meeting Joe Biden than to discuss what I was doing with his family’s name and the Chinese CEFC.
CARLSON: He’s — and this is a company with direct connections to the communist government of China — so the former vice president has said he had no knowledge whatsoever of his son’s business dealings and was not involved in them at all. But this sounds like direct involvement in them.
BOBULINSKI: Yeah. That’s a blatant lie. When he states that, that is a blatant lie. Obviously the world’s aware that I attended the debate last Thursday, and in that debate he made a specific statement around questions around this from the president, and I’ll be honest with you; I almost stood up and screamed liar and walked out, because I was shocked that after four days or five days that they prepped for this, that the Biden family is taking that position to the world.
And once again, I’m irrelevant in this discussion. I just was brought in to run this company and have been exposed to all of this fact, and I believe the American people should see this fact.
I would have much preferred the Biden family go on record and define these facts to the American people and the globe versus me sitting here having a discussion with you on it.
CARLSON: So Joe Biden has not denied meeting with you in Los Angeles. Correct?
BOBULINSKI: Correct. CARLSON: Tell us about the conversation that you had with him.
BOBULINSKI: So, I initially was sitting — because I got there a little earlier, was sitting with Jim Biden and Hunter Biden, and Joe came through the lobby with his security and Hunter basically said, hey, give me a second, I’ll go over and — give me 10 minutes to brief my dad and read him in on things.
And so then Hunter and his father and security came through the bar, and obviously I stood up out of respect to shake his hand and Hunter introduced me as, this is Tony, Dad, the individual I told you about that’s helping us with the business that we’re working on and the Chinese.
CARLSON: So it was clear to you that Joe Biden’s son had told him about this business deal? BOBULINSKI: Crystal clear. CARLSON: Crystal clear. Tell us about the conversation that subsequently occurred between you and Joe Biden.
BOBULINSKI: So the conversation — as you’re well aware, Tucker, I grew up the son of a career Naval officer, so the president of the United States was always the commander-in-chief, whether they were a Democrat or a Republican or other, and so I had the highest respect for Joe and the office that he had held. And so, I stood up and shook his hand.
And obviously, we sat down and I think ordered some drinks. I think Jim Biden was hungry and might have ordered some food. And you know, Joe asked me to talk about my background, my family. He thanked me for my service. I’m obviously very proud of that, proud of my brother’s service and my grandfather’s service.
And then he walked through sort of his family, you know, obviously some of the tragedies they’ve dealt with, his political career, on a high level.
We didn’t go into too much detail on business, because prior to Joe showing up Hunter and Jim had coached me, listen, we won’t go into too much detail here, so just a high-level discussion and meeting. So it’s not like I was drilling down with Joe about cap tables and details.
CARLSON: So, you said that they wanted you to meet Joe Biden as a way to induce you to participate in this deal. You were the actual business guy here who had management experience, deal experience. But it also sounds like Joe Biden was vetting you to some extent.
BOBULINSKI: Yes of course, like, I didn’t request to meet with Joe; they requested that I meet with