For years Republicans used Hunter Biden as a whipping boy, a punching bag. Because of his personal circumstances and who his father was he had to sit there and take it. Or felt he had to in order to shield his father from attacks. And the attacks on Hunter Biden have in fact taken a political toll on his dad, President Joe Biden. Now I’m thinking the GOP deciding to go ahead and start the impeachment process was a stupid move on their part. If Hunter Biden sat back and took all the crap he took to avoid that very thing, the GOP gave away their leverage. Once it was clear impeachment wasn’t just a lot of “bigly talk” and that the House intended to go ahead and move forward Hunter knew he’d wind up on Capitol Hill testifying. It’s now clear he and his lawyer were prepared if things came to that to do more than sit around and wait for what was coming, or to play House Republican’s game. He even laid down a marker although not many realized it at the time.
Back in September when Hunter went on the attack, filing lawsuits against Rudy Giuliani (and others) over release of digital data (note: the lawsuit does NOT “admit” any of it was from the infamous laptop) and then the IRS over those two “whistleblowers” giving out his tax information someone smarter than Comer should have realized things had changed. But Comer and others missed the warning signs and decided they’d try to revive their flaccid impeachment inquiry by issuing subpoenas to Hunter Biden and a bunch of other Biden family members. Basically, Comer and his cronies thought that they had a target that couldn’t fight back, and decided to once again “punch DOWN.” Well…
Yesterday morning Hunter Biden gave House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer a political punch in the mouth. Comer is running the House Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden, and as with other House committee efforts to “get Joe Biden” it hasn’t gone well for the GOP. But, as southern gals would say “bless their hearts” they are trying. (If you don’t know when a southern gal says that in a certain tone she’s not being kind – she’s saying someone’s a f**king idiot) Comer has issued subpoenas to Biden family members including of course Hunter Biden. On December 13th.
I’m willing to bet Comer expected Hunter Biden to back and fill, come up with excuses to delay (it IS the holiday season after all) and typical stuff like Republicans do. (His buddy Gym Jordan for example, who never answered a subpoena much less testified) The LAST Comer expected was Hunter Biden to turn around and say “Sure. I’ll see you then. As long as my testimony is given PBULCLY! That of course is not at all what Comer and his KKKronies want to have happen. I’ll get to that.
The larger implication is that the GOP has only innuendo and lies, and in a public forum Hunter Biden who lest we forget was a lawyer himself is ready to take them on – and in a setting where Democrats can help out by pointing out GOP bullsh*t questions. Right there in the open where everyone can see it. Maybe some of what Hunter Biden did over the years doesn’t play so well given his dad was in high public office. He’s far from the first family member of a President (or VP) to cause folks to shake their head and if supportive of the dad say “He/she should have thought about how that would look.” But that’s not illegal. Or even immoral for that matter. It’s politically inconvenient at most. And in this case, as pundits have been pointing out on TV today after five years of being investigated everything Hunter Biden is already out there. It’s “baked in” so to speak.
Still, by playing their normal games which Congressman Jamie Raskin has wonderfully explained GOPers were chomping at the bit to use their bogus impeachment hearing to do the selective leak crap they always do and put Democrats and the President (who of course can’t respond) on the defensive. For years the GOP has bullied Hunter Biden because they could. They knew he couldn’t really do much because the already political headaches it was all causing for his father would get much, much worse. Again, he’s been investigated by the DOJ for years and it all started under Trump. If there was ever any “there” there it would have come out long ago. In the end, the best DOJ could come up with was a gun charge over an answer on a form for which few people (and I mean that literally) are ever prosecuted, and some charges for back-taxes. Which Hunter Biden paid back (with interest) quite a while ago. In the end a plea deal (and again, on either charge most people would never go to court in the first place) which as you know fell apart when Republicans howled in protest.
House Republicans don’t have anything new on Hunter Biden. He knows it. And they know he knows it. Still, Comer and the others decided they could and should continue to use him as a punching bag. Just like a bully. Only now, once the impeachment train was being put on the tracks Hunter Biden as I’ve said Hunter Biden has no reason to keep being a whipping boy to save his dad from impeachment. Yesterday he marched right into the House GOP’s sandbox and punched the bully in the face. Like a typical bully Comer is now whining. Talking about how people subpoenaed by Congress don’t get to make up their own rules for their appearance. And that once a private deposition is taken from Hunter they can talk about a public hearing. (Probably after Trump finally has an actual infrastructure week!)
If Raskin’s blast was epic we’re just getting started. When it comes to any House Republican talking about the sanctity of Congressional subpoenas and following whatever dictates the issuer lays down the hypocrisy is staggering. There are going to be plenty of salvos fired back and forth as this unfolds. The bottom line is that we don’t know how this will end but Comer and his cronies are going to take plenty of hard punches. And will bleed because Hunter Biden is DONE being their punching bag.
From where I sit it looks like he’s plenty capable of hitting them a helluva lot harder than they can hit him. It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks.
Yeah, many presidents had less than sterling children/relatives. John F. had brother Teddy (granted Chappaquiddick happened after his death but I’m willing to BET Teddy was a hell-raiser and/or swinging dick before that), Reagan had his wife (astrology loon), H.W. had George W., Clinton had his brother, George W. had a couple of daughters who had some fun, Barak actually had some decent kids, there isn’t enough room to cover the trumps, and now Joe has Hunter. This is not unusual apparently and it doesn’t seem to hurt the relative holding office. Maybe Hunter should have come out swinging from the get-go.
I hope he forces the “in public” thing and I hope he and his lawyer are smart enough NOT to do the behind closed doors thing.
Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy was a piece of work, trying to make money off his brother being President. My dad bought home a six-pack of “Billy Beer” for me. We shared a can. One. It sucked and we poured the rest out!
But if we are going to talk about high public officials and family members the GOP is living in a glass house. How about all the money flowing to spouses of SCOTUS members for example? And don’t get me started on Trump’s kids!
I get the feeling that Comer’s ‘smoking gun’ is really only a tepid water pistol (and he’s afraid to actually pull the trigger if anyone can see it)
Two words: Spiro Agnew