Hunter Biden‘s more aggressive strategy against House Republican investigations into his business dealings is creating political complications for the GOP as the younger Biden underscores his drug addiction and the personal tragedies he and President Joe Biden have experienced in life.
But Republicans remain confident in their now-formal impeachment inquiry into the president over allegations of family corruption before next year’s election.
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Hunter Biden defying a congressional subpoena last week has amplified his more aggressive strategy regarding House Republican investigations as he defends himself against federal criminal tax and gun charges brought by special counsel David Weiss. But with Hunter Biden referencing his addiction twice in a press conference as he insisted the president was not “financially” involved in his business dealings, even after some of the alleged crimes took place after his stated 2019 sobriety, Republicans are contending with how to criticize Biden without appearing to scrutinize the increasing number of people who suffer from substance abuse in important election states, such as New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
“They belittled my recovery, and they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass my father, who has devoted his entire life to public service,” Hunter Biden said last week. “For six years I have been a target of the unrelenting Trump attack team. ‘Where’s Hunter?’ Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”
Simultaneously, allies of former President Donald Trump, for instance, have started to note their reticence concerning undermining Hunter Biden over his addiction after Trump did not hesitate to do so during his first debate against the now president in 2020.
“Hunter got thrown out of the military,” Trump said that fall. “He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged for cocaine use. And he didn’t have a job until you were vice president.”
“That is simply not true,” Joe Biden replied. “My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem. He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
Former Trump 2020 campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, himself a recovering alcoholic, told the Washington Examiner last week he “never sought to attack Hunter [Biden] for things directly related to his addiction.”
“I knew what it was like to be controlled by a substance, and I wanted to stay away from bashing him for that,” Murtaugh added in his new book Swing Hard in Case You Hit It of the younger Biden. “But anything involving foreign payments that could have involved his father were totally in bounds.”
But other Republicans are less concerned about the political consequences of Hunter Biden emphasizing his addiction, arguing the GOP cannot use Hunter’s “crocodile tears” as an excuse to ignore their constitutional duty to investigate allegations of corrupt business dealings with the then-vice president. One House Republican strategist, for example, cited an Associated Press poll that found in October most adults thought Joe Biden at least acted unethically regarding Hunter’s business dealings, although only a third supported the impeachment inquiry.
“It’s [a] separate issue entirely, and while Hunter may try to pull on the heartstrings in a desperate attempt to persuade public opinion, it doesn’t change the fact that nearly 70% of Americans believe Joe did something either ‘illegal’ or ‘unethical,'” the strategist told the Washington Examiner.
Biden’s allies have tried to paint a picture of a son who lost his way after the death of his mother as a child and his brother as an adult, and succumbing to a reckless addiction that altered his judgment. The White House emphasizes how “proud” the president is of his son’s recovery.
Leaning into his struggles, Hunter Biden demanded to testify in public regarding his father’s impeachment inquiry, seemingly because a televised hearing could garner more sympathy than a closed-door deposition with investigators.
To that end, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY), the chairman of one of three panels investigating Hunter Biden as part of their impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, described the younger Biden as “the president’s crackhead,” “crack-addicted”, and “worthless son” as recently as this summer, though he has discouraged his colleagues from focusing too much on Hunter Biden’s tabloid-esque personal life, including sex with prostitutes, in the past.
When asked for his response to Hunter Biden and his strategies, a Comer spokeswoman shared the statement he and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) published last week after Biden’s press conference. In it, the pair, whom Biden had been subpoenaed to appear before that same day for a private deposition, pledged to commence contempt of Congress proceedings against him. Biden had earlier counteroffered to testify before the two panels in a public setting.
“We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden,” Comer and Jordan wrote. “As our committees were today prepared to depose Hunter Biden, he chose to make a public statement on Capitol Hill instead, where he said his father, Joe Biden, was not financially involved in his family’s business dealings. Exactly how was Joe Biden involved? Evidence shows Joe Biden met with Hunter’s business associates and his name was at the center of the family business strategy.”
“Today, the House will vote on an impeachment inquiry resolution to strengthen our legal case in the courts as we face obstruction from the White House and witnesses,” they said. “Today’s obstruction by Hunter Biden reinforces the need for a formal vote. President Biden and his family must be held accountable for their corruption and obstruction. And we will provide that to the American people.”
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The White House declined to comment on Hunter Biden and Republicans’s strategies, but press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was repeatedly pushed this week on whether the administration was trying to downplay the younger Biden’s presence around the president amid his indictments and the latter’s impeachment inquiry. Jean-Pierre was questioned after Joe and Hunter Biden spent last weekend in Delaware for the anniversary of the 1972 car crash that killed the president’s first wife and his son’s mother, Neilia. Hunter Biden was omitted from passenger manifestos for taxpayer-funded flights on Air Force One and Marine One, which the White House sent reporters, despite confirming the two had lunch with “friends” the day before.
“The family gets to travel with the president and that’s been the case with every other president,” Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “As it relates to the past couple of days, as I just stated to your colleague, that the president and [his] family were obviously, it was a somber anniversary that they were recognizing.”
