The White House blamed the Hollywood writers’ strike for press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre missing a planned appearance on ABC’s "The View" on Wednesday as President Biden remains engulfed in controversy related to his son, Hunter Biden.
Jean-Pierre was promoted as a guest on Wednesday’s edition of daytime gabfest, with her appearance set to come as the Biden administration faces a series of scandals surrounding Hunter Biden, who recently pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax as part of a deal that is expected to keep him out of prison. Internal Revenue Service whistleblower Gary Shapley has said that Hunter Biden got special treatment from the Department of Justice.
While Jean-Pierre appearing on the live program could have resulted in uncomfortable moments, the White House insists her absence was in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since early May.
"Out of respect for striking writers, we pulled down our scheduled appearance on The View. President Biden and his entire administration sincerely hope that the writers’ strike gets resolved – and writers are given the fair deal they deserve – as soon as possible," a White House official told Fox News Digital.
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The same official did not immediately respond to a follow-up email asking when the decision was made, as the writers’ strike has been going on for weeks and ABC promoted Jean-Pierre’s appearance on "The View" as recently as Tuesday.
"The View" promoted Jean-Pierre’s appearance Tuesday with a since-deleted tweet.
"TOMORROW: White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre joins us LIVE at the #HotTopics table to weigh in on the latest headlines," the tweet said.
Jean-Pierre’s absence was not explained to viewers.
ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Since the strike began, "The View" has been airing without writers, which the panelists have regularly mentioned.
"You know, we don’t have any writers," co-host Whoopi Goldberg said on Wednesday.
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Several TV shows have halted production, with programs such as "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Late Night with Seth Meyers," "The Daily Show," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live" being impacted. Earlier this month, actor Dermot Mulroney walked off "The View" in solidarity with the writers.
Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee last week released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who alleged officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered with the investigation of Weiss' tax evasion case against Hunter Biden. The whistleblowers accused investigators of "trying to limit" questioning related to President Biden as part of the investigation into his son and said decisions in the case seemed to be "influenced by politics."
Shapley, one of the two whistleblowers, has gone public with his accusations that DOJ officials "slow-walked" the case. He told "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier there were two search warrants that were supposed to be executed on properties connected to Biden, but prosecutors got cold feet as the 2020 presidential election drew near.
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Along with the deal on tax evasion charges, the president's son also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Jean-Pierre has long refused to answer tough questions about Hunter Biden.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Chris Pandolfo and David Spunt contributed to this report.
