For nearly four years, Republicans have been probing the darkest corners of Hunter Biden’s life, trying to link the problems with his father, President Biden. But as the younger Biden went on trial in Delaware on gun charges, the political contradictions that dogged the case kept the GOP largely silent, from former President Donald J. Trump on down.
It stands to reason: the unfounded claim that the Justice Department of Biden carried out the political persecution of Mr. Trump seems to have been destroyed by the prosecutor’s department of the president’s son. It is also difficult to make many allegations that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use to buy a gun when your party sponsored legislation to ease the ban on the purchase of guns for mentally ill veterans, and also a case before the Supreme Court. could allow domestic abusers to purchase firearms.
So beyond the professional provocateurs in Washington and the right-wing media, Republicans have decided to say little.
“I’m not going to read too much into a lot of people not talking about it right now,” said Representative Kelly Armstrong, Republican of North Dakota, and the leader of the House Hunter Biden investigation. “A lot of other things have happened in the last three days. We’ll see how it goes at the end of the week.
Among the “others” that Mr. Armstrong was referring to were 34 criminal counts that the party’s presumptive presidential candidate was found guilty of last week.
And when the Manhattan jury that convicted Mr. Trump of approving fraudulent business records to cover hush-money payments to porn stars was empaneled by state courts and prosecutors in a case working for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, Republicans asserted – wrongly – that the Department of Justice Biden coordinated the entire case, which made the prosecution of Hunter Biden’s department politically inconvenient.
On Tuesday, when the Republican majority of the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “The DOJ has become a politician and a weapon under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland,” almost only one mentioned Hunter Biden from Democrats, such as Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee, who questioned Mr. Garland that the department has charged Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas. The answer is yes.
“So you’ve prosecuted Democrats, and as we speak, Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is on trial in Delaware,” Mr. Cohen said, adding that the department had declined to indict members of the Republican Party. committee, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, after investigating people for the type of human trafficking.
“Mr. Gaetz is real evidence that you don’t use Justice Department weapons,” Mr. Cohen said. (Mr. Gaetz was not in the room at the time.)
Perhaps the only mention of the president’s son by Republicans in the long hearing came from Representative Ben Cline of Virginia, who asked whether Mr. Garland had spoken with Hunter Biden at a state dinner for the president of Kenya last month.
“I’ve never spoken to Hunter Biden in my life,” Mr. Garland replied.
Then there are the charges facing Hunter Biden – he lied about his drug use in the federal background check to buy a gun – and the clash with gun rights absolutism in the GOP. On Tuesday night, the House just passed a measure that would exclude military veterans. who has been reported to the FBI for mental health issues by the national gun background check system.
“I am encouraged to see Congress refuse to turn a blind eye to 260,000 veterans who have been wrongfully submitted to the FBI’s corrupt system,” declared Representative Eli Crane, Arizona Republican and sponsor of the amendment.
But the “corrupt system” is the same as Hunter Biden who was accused of falsifying federal forms when he wanted to buy a gun.
Gun rights organizations have linked the case, trying to align their political efforts to defeat President Biden with an attack on the fast-track vetting system.
“Gun Owners of America believes that Hunter Biden’s violation of gun control is unconstitutional and that Form 4473 should not exist,” said Erich Pratt, the group’s senior vice president. “However, as long as these violations remain on the books, Hunter Biden does not get special treatment from the DOJ”
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said, “The NRA is a determined advocate for the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American, but we draw the line at criminal behavior.”
Democrats have no problem pointing out contradictions.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, which has spent nearly two years investigating Hunter Biden, was almost sympathetic. The prosecutor in the case is an appointee of the Trump Justice Department, he said. The judge was also nominated by Mr. Trump.
“The existence of the prosecution and trial of Hunter Biden contradicts everything that has been said about the prosecution and trial of Trump,” he said.
And, Mr. Raskin added, “if any other person in America is accused of lying on a federal form to obtain a pistol, the entire apparatus of the Republic will be mobilized to accuse them of violating their Second Amendment rights.”
Mr. Armstrong said that the circle could really be a square. A year ago, he noted, Hunter Biden agreed with the Justice Department to plead guilty to two tax evasion charges and accept terms that would have allowed him not to be prosecuted on a separate gun charge, a deal that could have resulted in the case being dropped without jail time. time. But Trump’s appointed judge in the case, Maryellen Noreika, objected, and the plea deal collapsed.
“I’m sure he would have been happier if the plea agreement had been accepted – it just wasn’t,” Mr Armstrong said. “But the DOJ is not a part of it. A federal judge said no.
Still, campaign strategists from both parties said this week that their candidates should drop the Hunter Biden case. Republicans said they were watching the court in Delaware to see if the defendant’s father came up. Otherwise, he said, the candidates should stick to the issues the party won: the economy and the border.
The Trump campaign held a call with the news media on Tuesday to criticize President Biden’s executive order closing the border to amnesty seekers. The former president released several videos on the subject including promising that a Wall Street Journal reporter jailed in Russia would be freed if elected and embracing the ballot. Hunter Biden or other members of the “Biden crime family” did not attend.
Democrats have also been eager to focus on issues that voters care about — and Hunter Biden is not one of them.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Tuesday in the CNBC forum pressed on the statement that the Manhattan court in which Mr. Trump was convicted has become a “banana republic trial.” If so, he asked, is Hunter Biden’s open case also a banana republic trial?
“Can’t watch anything yet,” Mr. Johnson shrugged. “We’ll see. I hope not.”