There has been considerable reporting in both Greece and Turkey about the White House’s reply to a question from Newsmax about reports of a controversial Turkish businessman hosting President Joe Biden’s younger brother Jim Biden for a vacation.
At the White House press briefing Friday, Newsmax cited a report in the Turkish publication Duvar English that businessman Ekim Alptekin recently revealed he had hosted Jim Biden and his wife during a vacation to Turkey in 2019.
Noting that the president has yet to call Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, we asked press secretary Jen Psaki whether he would make that call or “operate with back channels to Ankara.”
“I’m not familiar with this individual or this engagement,” Psaki replied, referring to Alptekin and the hosting of Jim Biden.
Alptekin, chairman of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, was indicted along with Bijan Rafiekian in December 2018 on charges of conspiring to extradite expatriate Turkish cleric and Erdogan enemy Fethullah Gulen from the U.S. to Turkey. Rafieken is a former business partner of Gen. Michael Flynn, onetime national security adviser to President Donald Trump.
Regarding the call to Erdogan the president has yet to make, his top spokeswoman said Biden “has many global leaders — world leaders he still needs to call, and he will venture to do that in the coming weeks and months.”
Pressed by Newsmax as to whether that will include a call to Erdogran, she replied without specifying a date: “I’m sure he will at some point.”
Biden’s failure so far to call Erdogan is considered a sore point with the Turkish president, whom Biden called an “autocrat” before he was elected president.
In a video recorded on Dec. 16, 2019, then-candidate Biden said he was "very concerned" about Erdogan's approach to the Kurds in Turkey and his military cooperation with Russia.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.