OPINION:
Former Vice President Joe Biden sat for an interview with Oprah Winfrey last Wednesday during which he declared that his son Hunter is “the smartest guy I know.” One can understand why, as a parent, Mr. Biden loves his son. But if Hunter is the smartest guy Mr. Biden knows and he wins the presidential election, we’re all in trouble.
Whether Joe benefitted from it or not, Hunter is a scam artist who threw in with Chinese Communist intelligence officials to make millions selling access to his father and the Obama administration. He flaunted his drug habit, got a stripper pregnant and lied about it until DNA evidence forced him to accept the responsibility of supporting their child.
The smartest guy his father knows also turns out to be dumb enough to have abandoned an ailing laptop containing tens of thousands of incriminating emails after taking it into a Delaware computer shop for repairs in spite of calls from the shop owner urging him to pick it up. His father, whether he wins or not, will be dealing with the fallout from that smart move for months or years.
In his interview with Miss Winfrey, Mr. Biden explained that in 2008 when Barack Obama asked him to be his running mate, he was at first inclined to turn it down. He thought he could be more helpful as a senior Democratic senator but agreed to discuss the matter with his family before making a final decision. After sitting down with his family on his “back porch,” Mr. Biden decided to accept and the rest, as they say, is history. Hunter was, of course, a part of that discussion and as the smartest guy his father knows, no doubt saw the opportunities for making a buck or two if his father accepted and became vice president of the United States.
Joe Biden has had Hunter’s back since both as a father and perhaps as some of the available evidence suggests, as a co-conspirator, but there can be no doubt that the decision the Biden family reached that evening on Biden’s back porch opened the doors that made it possible for family members to make millions of dollars. As vice president, Hunter’s father flew his son around the world on Air Force 2 and introduced him to wealthy Russian oligarchs, decision-makers in Ukraine and plugged-in businessmen in Communist China.
The result of all this let the smartest guy Joe Biden knows reap not just millions of dollars, but hundreds of millions of dollars for himself, his uncle Jim and perhaps even his dad. He sold influence by persuading those with whom he dealt that through him they could reach both Joe and others at the top levels of the Obama administration.
When news of what the smartest guy his father knew had been up to first began to trickle out, the former vice president denied everything and claimed that he knew nothing about any of it. He said that while he could understand why all these people would want to hire someone as smart and capable as Hunter, he had never either on his back porch or during those long flights on Air Force 2 discussed anything relating to what Hunter was doing. As more information came out, Joe changed his story, admitting that he may have met briefly with some of his son’s business associates, but insisted that whatever went on, everyone should know that Joe Biden never received a penny from any of these “foreigners.”
When the abandoned laptop surfaced, the smartest guy’s father shut up and let his campaign advisers and friends argue that the whole thing was a fantasy dreamed up by Vladimir Putin in an attempt to reelect his “friend” Donald Trump. The defense was absurd, but was picked up by Democrats far and wide. His friends in Congress and media wonks worked to shut down coverage of the evidence while echoing the charge that it was little more than Russian “disinformation” anyway.
Some — and perhaps even enough — voters headed to the polls Tuesday may discount the evidence either because they were shielded from it by a pro-Biden media or bought the “Putin did it” defense, but even if the former vice president wins as a result of their efforts they will only have succeeded in kicking the ball down the road because the truth will come out and there will be a reckoning.
In the meantime, if he wins perhaps Joe Biden will consult with Hunter Biden in putting his cabinet together. After all, voters shouldn’t expect him to reject advice from the smartest guy he knows.
• David A. Keene is an editor at large for The Washington Times.
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