The Biden campaign disputed a report that the Democratic nominee’s son-in-law Howard Krein advised the campaign on the coronavirus while simultaneously investing in healthcare startups.
A Tuesday report in Politico citing a passage of conservative journalist Peter Schweizer’s book, Profiles in Corruption, said that Joe Biden’s relatives leveraged their relationship with the former vice president to advance their business ventures.
Schweizer is a senior contributor to right-leaning media site Breitbart and president of the Government Accountability Institute, a conservative think tank based out of Tallahassee, Florida. Schweizer has often appeared in TV interviews to discuss Senate Republicans’ investigation into Hunter Biden’s past business dealings.
“It’s sad that Politico is recycling baseless accusations and innuendo from a discredited right-wing ‘journalist’ like Peter Schweizer,” Biden campaign spokesman Mike Gwin told the Washington Examiner in an email.
Krein, 53, is a Philadelphia-based surgeon who married Biden’s daughter, Ashley, in 2012. He serves as the chief medical officer of StartUp Health, which was founded in 2011.
“All around the world, people are facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainties as a result of the coronavirus pandemic,” the firm stated on its website. “At StartUp Health, an army of Health Transformers has mobilized to address this global health crisis.”
Krein and Biden’s relationship had come under scrutiny since he first announced his presidential run, Politico reported.
Biden’s son and Krein’s brother-in-law, Hunter Biden, is also a target of the Trump campaign, which accused the 50-year-old businessman of trying to advance his financial and business dealings through his father’s connections, a focus of the GOP investigation into him.
At a campaign event on Aug. 28, Biden denied ever speaking with any of his relatives about their private ventures while he was serving as vice president, and he said that he would take the same approach if he is elected president.
“I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” Biden said. “What I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government. There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I’m going to propose the same kind of strict, strict rules. That’s why I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else, even distant family, about their business interests. Period.”
