Republicans decide to impeach Biden for the sins of his son

The Republican Party is scrambling to prove father and son wrongdoing in order to divert attention from Donald Trump’s three indictments, British left-liberal publication The Guardian claims.

In this context, the confession made by Joe Biden, who recently admitted: “I have seven grandchildren,” became a landmark. As The Guardian notes, it was Biden’s way of giving in to critics and paying tribute to his four-year-old granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts. Presidential son Hunter admitted that he fathered Navi while he was battling alcohol and drug addiction and that he has no relationship with her. Hunter’s paternity was established through DNA testing during a long dispute over child support.

The episode illustrated Hunter’s personal and political vulnerabilities—and President Biden’s efforts to overcome them ahead of another painful re-election campaign. A week later, the president’s overgrown son was once again at the center of a legal storm that has made him a target for Republicans trying to connect the dots between him and his father.

CNN reports that the Republicans who oversee the House of Representatives have announced their intention to charge President Joe Biden with corruption even without direct evidence that he benefited financially from Hunter Biden’s overseas business operations, a clear change in their strategy they say was launched to investigate the president’s activities. The new strategy is covered in a memorandum published by the committee recently.

“President Biden’s defenders claim a weak defense, arguing that the Committee must prove payments directly to the president to prove corruption,” House Oversight Republicans wrote. “That is an empty claim that no other American would allow himself if his family members accepted foreign payments or bribes. Indeed, the law recognizes that payments to family members for the purpose of corrupting others may constitute a bribe.”

The Commission refers to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) reference guide, which states that “companies may also violate the FCPA if they provide payments or gifts to third parties, such as members of the official’s family, as an indirect means of corruptly influencing a foreign official.” So far, Hunter Biden has not been charged or convicted of taking bribes, CNN recalls.

The memorandum follows a growing call from many Republicans in the House of Representatives — and, of course, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — to seek the impeachment of the incumbent U.S. president even without a clear establishment of the facts.

Whit Ayres, Republican political consultant and pollster, states: “There are many questions about his business activities and the extent to which he speculated on his father’s name and reputation or used his father to get more money or get big contracts. There are many questions and suspicions – at least in Republican circles – about how this was investigated.

Close attention checks the boundaries of what is permitted and whether the family of the American president is playing honestly. On the one hand, Hunter Biden has never served in the White House, which makes it quick to characterize him as a “private citizen.” But, on the other hand, he is often seen next to the father president, including during a recent trip to Ireland and on the balcony of the White House during fireworks on July 4, which often reminds of the family difficulties of America’s aged president.

“I don’t think I would put him in the spotlight as much as the president does,” says Whit Ayres. “I understand his instinctive desire to be loyal to his troubled son, but from a political point of view, this does not help at all. The less visible Hunter Biden, the better for Joe Biden.”

What is certain, The Guardian continues, is that Hunter, 53, is battling “personal demons.” A few weeks ago, he appeared in a Delaware court amid expectations that he would plead guilty to two tax charges and avoid gun possession charges. But the judge in the case said he could not accept a plea agreement with prosecutors. Republicans in the House of Representatives launched an investigation into the plea deal.

Republicans have also tried to argue – so far without success – that there is a connection between Biden the father and Biden the son, which suggests that the former is covered in wrongdoing. Among the American right’s claims is that when Joe Biden was vice president, he played a role in his son’s business dealings and profited from his deals. The White House claims that Biden allegedly never did business with his son.

At a press conference hosted by the Congressional Integrity Project, Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman said, “This is not an investigation into the Bidens, no matter what they say. This is an investigation into Hunter Biden, and they’re trying to find some connection to Joe Biden. But there is no connection based on facts and evidence.”

The other day, Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter, showed up for a private interview led by members of the House Oversight Committee. Representatives who were present at the interrogation said that Archer testified that in 10 years, Hunter called his father on the phone about 20 times while in the company of colleagues, but “never spoke about any business deals.”

According to Dan Goldman, the only member of Congress who remained in the room throughout the interview, Archer testified that Hunter sought to create the “illusion of access” to then-Vice President Biden by doing business in Ukraine. But Biden is alleged to have played no role in any of the deals, and Archer has not provided any evidence of his misconduct.

Dan Goldman stated, “The Republican witness was unequivocally clear that President Joe Biden never, in any way, discussed Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Hunter or any of Hunter’s business associates.”

But Republican Congressman Andy Biggs, a member of the far-right faction who co-sponsored the Biden impeachment bill, takes a different view. He claimed that Archer’s testimony was about the president, insisting, “Archer was talking about the ‘big guy’ and how Hunter Biden always said, ‘We need to talk to my guy.’ I think we should have an impeachment inquiry.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has warned Republicans could launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden if federal agencies do not cooperate with oversight committees investigating the Biden administration’s dealings with the family. It would be a sure way to ensure media coverage, which Republicans say is sorely lacking due to liberal prejudice, writes The Guardian.

Former media consultant for Republican politicians Bill Whalen notes with undisguised sarcasm: “If you swapped the names and instead of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden you had Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr., do you think there would be the same lack of coverage? My God, an impeachment investigation would start right away. Protests at the White House. It would be just 24/7 news coverage. Instead, the mainstream media is treating it as a non-issue that clearly doesn’t want Joe Biden to be removed from office in any way.”

But Hunter Biden is already getting a lot of airtime in the right-wing media, The Guardian emphasizes. While most news outlets focus on former President Donald Trump’s three criminal charges, conservative Fox News and others quickly turned to Hunter, his father, and the alleged bribery scheme, “even though the Republican-led committees have so far been unable to provide evidence, and witness after witness disappointed.”

Political consultant Whit Ayres noted: “If you look at Fox News or some of the more conservative cable networks, you would think that Hunter Biden is probably the only thing going on in America right now. Was Trump indicted? But Hunter Biden, what a scandal!”

Where right-wing media lead, Republican politicians follow. When Trump was recently indicted, as The Guardian put it, “for lying that fueled the attack on American democracy,” McCarthy responded with a list of charges against Hunter and an allegation that the Justice Department was trying to divert attention. Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader, accused the department of “cutting good deals for Hunter” in an attempt to prosecute Trump for “an outrageous abuse of power.”

Trump’s son Don Jr. joined the fray, tweeting on former Twitter (now X), “Anyone else spot a pattern here? The corrupt bureaucrats of the Biden regime are indicting Trump literally the day after every catastrophic story about the crimes of the Biden family.”

As legal walls surround Trump, Hunter becomes an imperfect opponent of the Republicans, writes The Guardian. Whether this will have a big impact on voters in next year’s presidential election remains unclear: attempts to use Hunter as a weapon against his father failed in 2020.

Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, lead impeachment manager in Trump’s January 6 attack trial, told MSNBC: “This is clearly a crazy and desperate attempt to distract everyone from this unprecedented and phenomenal crime against American democracy. Hunter Biden was not and is not an elected public official. He was not a member of the Biden administration or a government official.”

According to Ruskin, there is no equivalent to Trump’s “crimes”. “You are talking about an encyclopedia of insults and scandals directed against constitutional government, compared to what is at best a comma or a footnote in the annals of American political history, because you are talking about the president’s son. They have not laid a finger on Joe Biden and have not been able to link him in any way to any of their alleged corruption scandals.”

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, drew comparisons to Republican attempts to use the 2012 terrorist attack on the US consulate in Libyan Benghazi against Hillary Clinton. “Hunter Biden is their last Benghazi. This is an imaginary problem that they are desperately trying to make real. They need something, anything, to change the subject of accusing the former president.”