Appropriating a wee bit of literary license from author Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Republicans are wont to ask: “How may we exploit the coming Hunter Biden tempest? Let us count the ways.” There is the money angle – and lots of it – to discuss. There is an active Department of Justice investigation into Biden-the-younger about to hit the fan. And then there is the big kahuna: credible evidence of what the president knew of his son’s tawdry business dealings and when he knew it. Add it all up and what you have is a made-for-TV political three-ring circus with a bit of schadenfreude mixed in for good measure.
Oh, Politico!
If you had even the slightest uncertainty about which way Politico leans, doubt no more. In an April 6 article titled “‘All over Hunter Biden’: Republicans lay plans for their own investigation, despite the DOJ probe,” the digital site did its best to serve as an apologist for the Biden clan and attempt to sully former President Donald Trump along the way:
“In recent years, GOP lawmakers indulged a number of questionably sourced claims about Hunter Biden’s work with foreign companies that critics said were more intended to politically damage his father than to pursue genuine conflicts of interest. No evidence has emerged to show or suggest that Hunter Biden’s business deals have affected his father’s decision-making as president, though new reports about financial details found on a laptop that he left with a Delaware repair shop have resurrected Republican interest in finding smoking-gun proof.”
There are not one but two fallacious assertions in this paragraph. One is “a number of questionably sourced claims about Hunter Biden’s work with foreign companies,” which makes it sound like the president’s son is not the subject of a wide-ranging Department of Justice investigation. The fact is, Republicans did not force this inquiry upon Biden junior. They did not hamper him from paying his taxes, nor did they force Hunter into multiple international business dealings that – at the very least – have the distinct odor of influence peddling.
Deceptive assertion number two is: “No evidence has emerged to show or suggest that Hunter Biden’s business deals have affected his father’s decision-making as president.” Narrow the story down to the effect that the son’s questionable business transactions had upon the father as president, and boom – you’ve got a Democratic narrative that will allow Joe Biden to skate past anything the Department of Justice may throw at his son.
Hunter Biden (Kris Connor/WireImage Getty Images)
Meanwhile, even the leftist scribes smell blood in the water and have begun writing about Hunter Biden’s many and varied legal problems. CBS News Senior Investigative Correspondent Catherine Herridge recently tweeted: “+150 transactions involving either Hunter or James Biden’s global business affairs were flagged as concerning by U.S. banks for further review.” She interviewed Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who expressed concern that Hunter and his uncle James were promised compensation totaling $165,000 a month from a Chinese business concern.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is another Republican incensed by the lingering stench of the international business affairs of the Bidens. However, Johnson refutes the Politico premise that his family’s activities have not compromised the president. In an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox, Johnson speculated: “Why else did he [Joe Biden] cancel the Nord Stream 2 sanctions? Why did he cancel the China Initiative, which was a Department of Justice initiative to try and investigate and uncover Chinese theft of intellectual property? What is going on here?”
Republicans would be remiss not to make the most of the political fallout that is likely to occur when a federal grand jury investigating Hunter Biden announces its findings – not for the sake of politics so much as for the sake of the country.
