Republicans have spent nearly four years poring over the darkest parts of Hunter Biden’s life and trying to link his problems to his father, President Biden. But the glaring political contradictions of the case have kept Republicans below former President Donald J. Trump largely silent as Biden the son stands trial in Delaware on firearms charges.
That’s understandable. The baseless claim that the Biden Justice Department is persecuting President Trump politically is somewhat undermined by the Justice Department’s prosecution of the president’s son. And it’s hard to give weight to the claim that Hunter Biden lied about drug use to buy a handgun when your party is sponsoring legislation to ease gun purchasing restrictions for veterans who suffer from mental illness. Not to mention the Supreme Court is facing a case that could allow domestic abusers to buy guns.
So the Republican Party decided to say as little as possible about anything other than the professional agitators in Washington and the right-wing media.
“Just because not a lot of people are talking about this right now, I don’t want to read too much into it,” cautioned Rep. Kelly Armstrong, a North Dakota Republican who is a leader in the House Hunter Biden investigation. “There’s a lot more stuff that’s come up in the last three days. We’ll see what happens by the end of the week.”
Among the “other matters” Armstrong referred to were the 34 felony charges on which the party’s presidential nominee was convicted last week.
And although the Manhattan jury that found Trump guilty of approving fraudulent business records to conceal hush money payments to porn actresses was selected by a state court and the prosecutor in that case worked for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Republicans have falsely alleged that the entire case was orchestrated by the Biden Justice Department, making its prosecution of Hunter Biden politically expedient.
On Tuesday, when the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on “how the Department of Justice has been politicized and weaponized under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland,” virtually only Democrats mentioned Hunter Biden. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, for example, asked Attorney General Garland whether the Justice Department had indicted Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas. The answer was yes.
“We’ve indicted Democrats and right now we have the president’s son, Hunter Biden, on trial in Delaware,” Cohen said, adding that the Justice Department had investigated the committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, for sex trafficking allegations but decided not to indict him.
“Gates is living proof that we are not weaponizing the Department of Justice,” Cohen said. (Gates was not in the room at the time.)
Perhaps the only Republican to mention the president’s son during the marathon hearing was Rep. Ben Klein of Virginia, who asked whether Garland had spoken to Hunter Biden at a state dinner for the Kenyan president last month.
“I have never spoken to Hunter Biden,” Garland replied.
Plus, the allegations Hunter Biden faces (that he lied about drug use on a federal background check to buy a gun) clash with Republican gun rights absolutism. On Tuesday night, the House narrowly passed a bill that would exempt military veterans who had been reported to the FBI for mental health concerns from the national gun background check system.
“I am heartened that Congress will not ignore the 260,000 veterans who were wrongfully handed over to the FBI’s corrupt system,” declared Rep. Eli Klain, R-Arizona, who sponsored the amendment.
But that “corrupt system” is the same one Hunter Biden is accused of destroying in federal paperwork when he tried to buy a gun.
Gun rights groups are in disarray over the case, trying to reconcile attacks on the quick check system with political efforts to topple President Biden.
“Gun Owners of America believes the gun regulations Hunter Biden violated are unconstitutional and that Form 4473 should not exist,” said Eric Pratt, the group’s senior vice president. “But as long as these violations remain in the law, Hunter Biden does not deserve special treatment from the Department of Justice.”
“The NRA strongly advocates for the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans, but we draw the line at criminal activity,” Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, said in a statement.
Democrats have no problem pointing out the inconsistencies.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee that has spent nearly two years investigating Hunter Biden, was mostly sympathetic. He noted that the prosecutor in the case was an appointee of the Trump Justice Department. The judge was also nominated by Trump.
“The very existence of the Hunter Biden indictment and trial negates almost everything they were saying about the Trump indictment and trial,” he said.
Raskin added, “If any other person in America was accused of lying on federal paperwork to obtain a handgun, the entire Republican Party would be mobilized to charge that his Second Amendment rights were being violated.”
Armstrong said there’s actually a way to resolve this issue. He noted that Hunter Biden reached a deal with the Justice Department a year ago, pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax evasion charges and accepting immunity from prosecution on a separate firearms charge. That deal could have ended the case without prison time. But the judge on the case, Mary Ellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, objected, and the plea deal fell apart.
“I’m sure they would have been much happier if that plea deal had been accepted. It just wasn’t,” Armstrong said, “but the Department of Justice had no part in it. A federal judge said no.”
Still, campaign strategists from both parties said this week that candidates should stay away from Hunter Biden’s lawsuit. Republicans said they were watching the Delaware court to see if the defendant’s father’s case would be taken up. Otherwise, they said candidates should focus on issues their party is winning on: the economy and the border.
The Trump campaign held a conference call with reporters on Tuesday to denounce President Biden’s executive order closing the border to people seeking pardons. Former President Trump released a series of videos, including one in which he promised to free a Wall Street Journal journalist imprisoned in Russia if elected and in support of mail-in voting. No mention was made of Hunter Biden or other members of the “Biden crime family.”
Democrats were also eager to focus on issues that voters care about, but Hunter Biden is not one of them.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana was pressed on a CNBC forum on Tuesday about his assertion that the Manhattan courtroom where Trump was convicted was a “banana republic trial,” and if that was the case, whether the ongoing trial of Hunter Biden is also a banana republic trial.
“Ain’t seen nothing yet,” Johnson shrugged. “Let’s wait and see. Hopefully it won’t be.”
