Could the Hunter Biden investigations impact the 2024 election?
Republican strategists will hope that the legal woes of Hunter Biden could provide GOP candidates with some serious political capital in next year’s White House race.
Moments after news broke that the First Son had reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors, senior party figures went on the offensive.
Joe Biden is firm in his support for his eldest son and took him on his official visit to Ireland in April
Hunter even took part in a walkabout in Dundalk, Ireland, despite the White House insistence at the time that he would not be involved in any part of the official program.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who is running for the Republican nominee, claimed that “Americans have lost faith in Biden’s Justice Department.”
In a thinly veiled swipe at the pursuit of former President Donald Trump, he tweeted, “As the Biden family takes a slap on the wrist with velvet gloves, (the) DOJ throws the sink at the political opponent.”
The ex-commander wrote on his Truth Social platform that the agreement between Hunter Biden and DOJ officials was “a large-scale election-meddling scam.”
Trump has long suggested that the investigation into his handling of classified documents is nothing more than a witch hunt to knock him out of the presidential race.
Still, there appears to be little evidence that Hunter’s colorful private life will win the GOP any votes in the 2024 election.
A similar tactic was employed in 2020 when most of the US media decided to ignore a series of embarrassing leaks from his now infamous laptop.
The Biden campaign orchestrated a push — reportedly by now Secretary of State Anthony Blinken — to dismiss the emails about Hunter’s business dealings as Russian disinformation.
Those claims were breathlessly echoed by left-wing outlets, who ignored the revelations first reported by the New York Post in October 2020.
The article was even removed by tech giants Twitter and Facebook because it contained unfounded allegations.
Biden went on to win the 2020 election, angering Republicans who claimed that old media outlets and big business had conspired to suppress a news story that would have hurt Democrats.
Top Republican James Comer is a staunch critic of the Biden family and has vowed to continue his investigation into Hunter’s business dealings
James Comer, the chairman of the influential House of Representatives oversight committee, argues otherwise.
The congressman, who represents Kentucky, told Fox News Monday that the investigations had “definitely” moved the needle on Biden’s polls.
The 50-year-old is leading the congressional investigation into Hunter’s lucrative business dealings abroad that brought him in millions of dollars.
“There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “You look at the polls, and right now Donald Trump is 7 points ahead of Joe Biden and rising; Joe Biden leans down.
“And I believe the media is looking around, scratching their heads, and they’re realizing that the American people are keeping up with our investigation.”
Comer offered no evidence to support his claim that Hunter’s legal woes had helped the former president move faster in the polls.
Those angered by the alleged corruption of the Biden family are primarily registered Republicans, and the narrative is struggling to gain traction among Democrats and independents.
In fact, conducted a survey for NPR in late March highlighted the most important issues for voters of all political leanings.
Americans have cited the economy as the biggest problem facing the country in next year’s election amid two years of inflation under the Biden administration
According to the poll, 31 percent of voters see it as the top priority.
Other concerns include “the preservation of democracy” – a view shared by 20 percent of voters.
The next two are healthcare (9 percent) and immigration (8 percent).
Allegations surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop don’t even appear on the list of core issues.
Lunden Roberts, a former stripper, has reportedly settled her lawsuit with the First Son in a row over child support
Hunter took a paternity test in 2020, but he has never met Navy Joan Roberts, his four-year-old daughter with his former squeeze.
Earlier on Tuesday, the 53-year-old received an extra push as he reportedly settled a long-running legal battle with a former fling.
Lunden Roberts sued her ex-lover Hunter for unpaid child support in a row.
Under the terms of the deal, the president’s eldest son will cut his payments from $20,000 a month to $5,000.
That settlement will allow the Joe Biden 2024 campaign to show a sign of relief as the stream of negative coverage of the issue may come to an end.
That leaves Comer’s congressional investigation, in which Republicans continue to allege that Hunter Biden used his seat on the board of directors of Ukrainian energy company Burisma — for which he received significant amounts of money — to influence his father.
There are also unsubstantiated claims that the commander-in-chief himself took a bribe.
Whether Americans believe any of this when they head to the polls in November next year remains to be seen.