Biden camp denies report that son-in-law advised on health policy while investing in coronavirus startups
The former vice president's campaign said the reporting was 'baseless'
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's campaign is pushing back on a report that the candidate's son-in-law advised the team on the coronavirus pandemic and health policy while simultaneously investing in health care startups.
The investment firm StartUp Health, where Biden's son-in-law, Howard Krein, is chief medical officer, began an initiative in March soliciting pitches from entrepreneurs for products that addressed COVID-19, Politico reported Tuesday.
"[Over] the next month, reports in Bloomberg and the New York Times listed Krein among those participating in daily calls to brief Biden on health policy during the pandemic, while StartUp Health announced its intention to invest $1 million across 10 startups with coronavirus applications within 30 days," the outlet reported.
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Krein, 53, is a Philadelphia-based surgeon who married Biden's daughter Ashley in 2012.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The article also cited a passage of conservative journalist Peter Schweizer's book "Profiles in Corruption," alleging that Biden's relatives leveraged their relationship with the former vice president to their own professional and financial gain.
Schweizer is a senior contributor to the right-leaning media website Breitbart and is the president of a conservative think tank based in Tallahassee, Fla.
"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 wrote The Washington Examiner in an email on Tuesday.
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Gwin also told Politico that Schweizer's coverage of StartUp Health was full of "baseless accusations and innuendo.”
Biden's relationship with members of his family has come under increased scrutiny since he announced his presidential run.
On Wednesday, the New York Post reported that Biden's son Hunter, 50, introduced his father to a top Ukrainian energy firm executive less than a year before Joe Biden allegedly pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.
Hunter Biden's work in the former Soviet bloc nation and President Trump's interest in it were at the heart of the president's impeachment this year, with House Democrats arguing Trump attempted to use the powers of his office to force the Ukrainian government into actions that would benefit his reelection campaign and hurt Joe Biden's bid to unseat him.
In a largely party-line vote, the GOP-led Senate declined to remove Trump from the White House.
At a campaign event in August, Biden denied ever speaking with any of his relatives about their private ventures while he was serving as vice president under Barack Obama.
"I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period," said Biden. "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."
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"There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there," he asserted. "And I’m going to propose the same kind of strict, strict rules."
The Biden campaign didn't immediately return a message from FOX Business seeking comment.