Replies

MSN.COM
EXCERPT

Hunter Biden, who has not commented on the inquiries for months while under Justice Department investigation, has been taking on a more prominent public role in recent weeks. He has appeared at a number of White House events, at times with his 2-year-old son Beau.

Hunter Biden recently walked his daughter Naomi down the aisle for her White House wedding, appeared at the Kennedy Center Honors and attended a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. At one point during that dinner, Hunter Biden walked up to a group including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and said hello to McCarthy’s mother, according to people familiar with the exchange who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private interaction.

To some, it seemed a classic Biden-style moment of trying to charm an adversary. A McCarthy spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, but pointed to a statement released this week that included “Hunter Biden” among roughly a dozen areas that Republicans will prioritize for investigations. McCarthy has been nominated by House Republicans to be the next House speaker, though he has not yet secured all the votes he needs.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who is in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, has outlined a number of investigative steps he wants to take in probing Hunter Biden’s previous business dealings, including a lucrative business arrangement with a Chinese energy conglomerate.

Fact check: GOP claims about Hunter Biden and his father
The Washington Post reported in March that the conglomerate, CEFC China Energy, and its executives paid $4.8 million over 14 months to entities controlled by Hunter and his uncle, James Biden. The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details of the transactions.

Bobulinski has alleged that he was part of a previous deal related to CEFC that had involved Joe Biden, although it never came to fruition. The president has denied those claims and maintained his long-standing assertion that he never discussed foreign business dealings with his son.

In an interview, Comer said his investigation will be focused on the president, not his son. “The reason we’re investigating Joe Biden is to determine if this president and this White House are compromised, because of the millions of dollars that his family has received from our adversaries in China, Russia and Ukraine,” Comer said.

The congressman added that he hopes the White House will change its mind about cooperating with his probe. “At the end of the day, if the White House works with us, this shouldn’t be a very lengthy investigation and we can move on,” Comer said.

Much of the Democratic pushback against the GOP investigators, especially from the party establishment, is expected to focus on their motivation. One Democratic-leaning group, the Congressional Integrity Project, has circulated a memo based on six online focus groups, arguing that swing voters already see the planned Republican investigations as “political stunts” intended to damage the president.

CIP, according to the memo, is also prepared to criticize Republicans for turning a blind eye to the foreign business dealings of former president Donald Trump’s family, including his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Unlike Hunter Biden, Trump’s family members held formal government positions during his presidency.

A second document from CIP lists a set of phrases it says Democrats and their allies should use against the House investigations, including “power-hungry,” “Trump playbook,” “partisan warfare” and “MAGA Republicans.” Neither document mentions Hunter Biden by name.

CIP is working with another group called Courage for America that has set up an “accountability war room” to bring together Democratic allies to drive a consistent critique of House Republicans on a range of issues. “Our goal is to go on offense against the new House majority,” said Zac Petkanas, the Democratic strategist running that effort. “We are going to be pointing out the things that those investigations are distracting from.”

While the CIP is not formally tied to the White House, its leaders have spoken with President Biden’s aides and it recently brought on Jeff Peck, a former chief-of-staff to Biden from his time in the Senate.

Brock’s group, Facts First, is engaging with Hunter Biden and those in his immediate circle. In an October memo, Brock, founder of Media Matters and American Bridge, two influential liberal organizations, described Facts First USA as a “SWAT team” designed to “ensure that the media and public do not accept the false narrative that flows from congressional investigations.”

Brock has released a memo calling on Democrats to cast McCarthy’s embrace of the Hunter Biden investigations as a corrupt bid to court favor with far-right lawmakers whose support McCarthy needs to become House speaker. “He is so desperate to run the House he is willing to burn it down,” the memo says.

Brock is also reviewing research that Morris has conducted on Biden’s adversaries, including Bobulinski and Mac Isaac. Mac Isaac’s attorney declined to comment. Bobulinski did not respond to a request for comment.