White house

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 2: U.S. President Joe Biden returns a pen he used. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), are shown in this composite photo.  (Matt York/AP; Jim Watson/Pool via AP)

Hunter Biden was reportedly confronted at a White House black-tie event by two reporters bringing up Twitter’s release of documents regarding the suppression of reporting about his laptop, and House GOP members’ plans to investigate the first son’s overseas business dealings.

The Washington Examiner reported about the exchange, which happened on Sunday when President Biden hosted the 2022 Kennedy Center honorees in the East Room. This year’s honorees are George Clooney, Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, composer Tania Leon, and Irish rock band U2.

Hunter Biden, who attended the reception with his wife Melissa Cohen Biden was seated toward the back of the room when two reporters approached him. One reportedly asked him about Elon Musk’s decision to release documents outlining Twitter’s internal communications regarding the alleged censoring of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election.

Twitter initially blocked links to the story on its platform, citing concerns that it contained material obtained through computer hacking. That decision was reversed after it was criticized by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Facebook also took action to limit the story’s spread.

FBI WARNED TWITTER OF HUNTER BIDEN ‘HACK-AND-LEAK OPERATION’ BEFORE 2020 EXPOSE WAS CENSORED

The information revealed by Musk included Twitter’s decision to delete a handful of tweets after receiving a request from Joe Biden’s campaign. The tweets included nude photos of Hunter Biden that had been shared without his consent — a violation of Twitter’s rules against revenge porn.

The FBI warned Twitter during weekly meetings prior to the 2020 election that the social media giant could expect “hack-and-leak operations” by “state actors” involving Hunter Biden, according to a declaration by Twitter’s former head of site integrity Yoel Roth to the Federal Election Commission.

The other reporter who confronted Hunter Biden asked about House Republicans’ plans to investigate his millions of dollars worth of overseas business dealings which involve Ukraine, China, and Russia.

According to the first reporter’s account, Hunter Biden smiled and walked away without responding to their questions, the Examiner reported.

TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN: ELON MUSK WILL RELEASE EVIDENCE OF BIDEN ADMIN PUSHING TWITTER TO CENSOR CONSERVATIVES

After Republicans narrowly regained control of the House, Reps. Jim Comer. R-Ky., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced plans to launch investigations into Hunter Biden’s business dealings next year. Comer is the incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee, while Jordan will be the Judiciary Committee chairman in the new Congress.

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“This investigation will be a top priority,” Comer said. “This is an investigation of Joe Biden and why he lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s international business schemes.”

Fox News’ Tyler Olson, Landon Mion, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The White House said Monday that diplomatic channels between the United States and China will not only stay open, but may “potentially expand” after President Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 last month.

White House National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said that following the G-20, administration officials “are encouraged” by the dialogue between Washington and Beijing and plan to maintain “open” channels.

“We are encouraged that diplomatic channels of communication not only will stay open, but potentially expand,” Kirby said, noting that there are plans for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to travel to Beijing.

KIRBY SAYS BIDEN, XI MEETING WAS ‘NOT A RESET’ IN RELATIONSHIP BUT A BALANCING ACT

Kirby noted that officials are working through “the modalities of how those channels are going to stay open.”

Biden and Vice President Harris last month met with Xi at the G-20 summit in Indonesia in an effort to keep the “lines of communication open” following years of tensions between the United States and China – and warnings from top U.S. government officials that China poses the greatest national security threat to the country.

The meeting was the first time Biden and Xi met in person since Biden became president.

VP HARRIS, CHINA’S XI MEET TO ‘KEEP LINES OF COMMUNICATION OPEN’

A readout from the White House after the meeting said the two “exchanged views on key regional and global challenges,” like Russia’s aggression and threats of nuclear warfare. However, neither Beijing nor Washington said whether any developments were made regarding their differences of opinion when it comes to the war in Ukraine.

Blinken said last month he will travel to China early next year to discuss bilateral issues and maintain open lines of communication following Biden and Xi’s meeting.

China had suspended communications with the United States on key international issues over the summer in retaliation for the congressional delegation visit to Taiwan led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At the time, the Chinese Communist Party announced it canceled all discussions of climate change, drug networks and military action with the United States.

The meeting in Indonesia between the two leaders, while re-opening communications, did not amount to a “reset” in U.S.-China relations, Kirby said last month.

US ‘OPTIMISTIC’ FOLLOWING BIDEN, XI MEETING, CHINA WARNS AGAINST WEAPONIZING FOOD, ENERGY

“There are still tensions. There are still things we do not agree with the Chinese about,” Kirby said at the time, noting that the United States and China need to “balance” their competing agendas.

Biden administration officials have warned of the national security threat China poses to the United States.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said China poses “the biggest long-term threat” to U.S. economic and national security.

Intelligence community officials also have warned that state and local leaders are at “risk” of being “manipulated” to support “hidden” agendas by the Chinese Communist Party as China seeks to target officials outside of Washington to lobby for Beijing-friendly policies at the federal level.

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CIA Director William Burns has also warned that China is “the most profound test the CIA has ever faced,” calling Beijing a “formidable competitor lacking in neither ambition nor capability.”

Last year, the CIA created the China Mission Center in order to counter Beijing and “best position” the agency to address current and future national security challenges posed by China.

The White House on Monday maintained its support for keeping the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place as House and Senate Republicans threaten to block the national defense bill from moving forward unless the rule is lifted.

In August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo making COVID vaccines mandatory for all service members. Republicans have been demanding the vaccine mandate on service members be lifted for months as unvaccinated troops have continued to be subjected to punishments despite President Joe Biden declaring in September that the pandemic is “over.” As a result, the military is also struggling with recruitment and retainment.

The White House said over the weekend that the Biden administration was considering repealing the mandate after speaking with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, but White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby on Monday seemed to signal otherwise.

MCCARTHY VOWS MILITARY VACCINE MANDATE WILL END OR NATIONAL DEFENSE BILL WON’T MOVE FORWARD

“Secretary Austin’s been very clear that he opposes the repeal of that vaccine mandate, and the president actually concurs with the secretary that we need to continue to believe that all Americans, including those in the armed forces, should be vaccinated and boosted for COVID 19,” Kirby said Monday.

Kirby said administration officials are “aware that Congress is putting a repeal” for the mandate in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets military policy and spending levels for the Pentagon and other agencies in the country’s national defense infrastructure, but he added that vaccines “are saving lives, including our men and women in uniform.”

“So, this remains very, very much a health and readiness issue for the force,” Kirby said. “And again, the president supports Secretary Austin and the opposition to a repeal of the mandate.”

McCarthy, R-Calif., over the weekend said Republicans are working through the NDAA and said lawmakers “will secure lifting that vaccine mandate on our military.”

“Because what we’re finding is, they’re kicking out men and women that have been serving,” McCarthy said on “Sunday Morning Futures.” “That’s the first victory of having a Republican majority, and we’d like to have more of those victories, and we should start moving those now.”

‘WOKE’ MILITARY PROVISIONS ARE STICKING POINTS FOR GOP AS VOTE ON DEFENSE POLICY BILL LOOMS

McCarthy warned that the NDAA “will not move” if the vaccine mandate on service members is not lifted.

A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital that McCarthy raised the issue with Biden and said that “the president told him he would consider it.”

“The secretary of defense has recommended retaining the mandate, and the president supports his position,” White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton told Fox News Digital. “Discussions about the NDAA are ongoing.”

Last week, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined 11 other senators in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other leadership members last week demanding that the GOP not allow the NDAA to move forward without a vote on military vaccine mandates.

“The Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate has ruined the livelihoods of men and women who have honorably served our country,” the Paul-led letter said. “While the Department of Defense certainly must make decisions that will bolster military readiness, the effects of the mandate are antithetical to readiness of our force, and the policy must be revoked.”

REPUBLICANS MOVE TO STRIKE DEM PROPOSAL TO INCLUDE WOMEN IN THE MILITARY DRAFT

Meanwhile, the vaccine mandate is not the only provision Democrats included in the NDAA that Republicans oppose.

For example, Democrats have included language in the fiscal year 2023 NDAA to extend the military draft to women, prompting Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to introduce the “Don’t Draft our Daughters” amendment.

BLACKBURN BILL ENDS PENALTIES FOR UNVAXXED SERVICE MEMBERS AFTER BIDEN SAID PANDEMIC IS ‘OVER’

“The defense bill isn’t the place for Democrats to indulge the wild ideas of their latest social experiments, like forcing women to register for the draft,” Cotton told Fox News Digital. “If Democrats want to protect America and keep our troops safe, they should agree to pass a clean bill and leave their woke pet projects out of it.”