On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) stated that while he doesn’t think Hunter Biden’s “probably unethical” behavior reaches President Joe Biden, “we are duty-bound to investigate, to ensure the facts come out, and the fact is, we don’t know where this goes, and I think it’s too much risk for Democrats to take this chance without a backup plan.”

Phillips said, “I love Joe Biden. I think he’s a man of decency, of competency, his record [is] extraordinary. … Just imagine, Jake, the energy behind a next generation on the Democratic primary stage, perhaps a woman at the top of the ticket in a year in which reproductive rights are going to be front and center, other than the former president being under indictment and now the son of the President we have right now being subject to a special counsel. It’s a sad day for America, I want to start with that. I do not think the President is corrupt — I want to make that really clear — but we are duty-bound to investigate, to ensure the facts come out, and the fact is, we don’t know where this goes, and I think it’s too much risk for Democrats to take this chance without a backup plan. Because what we have right now in reserve is awfully consequential and, frankly, frightening.”

He added, “I really cannot imagine that this reaches the President. I think it’s fairly clear that Hunter Biden, a former addict — this is unsavory, probably unethical, and possibly illegal, some of what he did, we will find out. I don’t think it touches the President. But we all know what kind of an era we live in, it’s not what’s real, it’s how people feel.”

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