Miranda Devine: The Hunter Biden saga continues
The wayward son has a memoir to flog - all in service of protecting his father’s presidency, writes Miranda Devine
Opinion
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The sanctification of Joe Biden gathers pace, with the latest puff piece in British GQ featuring the US president in a cowboy outfit under the headline: “Swagger-in-Chief!”
“The 46th POTUS is more than the saviour of the Union … He’s a true-blue style icon too.”
The gushing prose around the photoshopped images has to be read to be believed.
GQ waxes lyrical about his Ralph Lauren outfits which prove his “unimpeachable patriotism”, his Ray-Ban aviators, “complete with natty gold frames” and his billionaire’s collection of expensive watches, including at least four $7000 Omegas and a $9000 Rolex.
Which brings us to the topic of Joe’s 51-year-old son Hunter, who also is a lover of the finer things in life, as well as the not so fine.
Hunter has written a book about his crack addiction, titled ‘Beautiful Things’, which reportedly has earned him a $2 million advance, presumably shared a little with the poor sap who actually wrote it.
But it doesn’t appear the book will contain confessions about his decade of alleged shady influence-peddling off his family name.
Joe says Hunter’s book is about his alleged triumph over addiction, but the fact it’s been listed on Amazon in “Chinese biographies” ought to tell you where the public interest lies.
It will be nothing but a con job if Hunter doesn’t fess up about his $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of a Chinese bank, and all the other lucrative deals in parts of the world where his father had influence.
Everyone loves a tale of redemption, but the scandal can’t just be airbrushed away by the President choking up on national television.
“The honesty with which he stepped forward and talked about the problem. And the hope that, it gave me hope reading it,” Joe said in an interview Sunday.
“My boy’s back,” he said, looking tearful. “I’m sorry to get so personal.”
Oh no, he’s not.
Getting personal is a practised move by Biden to use sympathy as a shield to protect his family’s dodgy business dealings.
In the first Presidential debate, Biden neutralised Trump’s attacks by saying: “My son … had a drug problem. He’s fixed it, he’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
His campaign strategically prevented the dirty family business becoming an election issue by turning scrutiny of Hunter into a no-go zone.
Joe lied when he said he knew nothing about his son’s business, a line which morphed into “my son did nothing wrong”, after the New York Post produced emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop showing “The Big Guy” was in it up to his neck.
He disappeared into his basement for almost a week after the Post’s laptop revelations in October, while his allies in Big Tech went to work censoring the stories. It was only after the election that we were informed the FBI is investigating Hunter over possible tax fraud, money laundering and foreign ties to China.
And what did Biden do on Day One in the Oval Office?
He installed the law partner of Hunter’s defence lawyer to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division, the very division which is investigating Hunter.
No wonder he’s swaggering.
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