President Biden really, really cares about corruption. Didn’t you get the memo?
According to the White House, “President Biden definitely engages on—with a range of leaders—in advancing, you know, his foreign policy priorities, foremost amongst which are absolutely to address and combat corruption.” Ironically enough, those words were spoken by a Biden official on the day of his meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose family is facing—wait for it—corruption allegations. Kenyatta and six relatives were recently exposed in the “Pandora Papers” leak as owners of 13 offshore companies, one of which holds $30 million in assets.
It is the perfect encapsulation of the failed Biden administration: Stumble and stutter your way through the talk, without walking the walk. In truth, President Biden’s anti-corruption fight was over before it even began.
If the president was truly concerned about corruption, he wouldn’t need to look far. Focus on the family: This is the same President Biden who continues to shield his son, Hunter, from any and all criticism, and Hunter Biden just happens to be one of the most corrupt figures in U.S. politics. When he’s not selling $500,000 art pieces or cozying up to Russian oligarchs, Hunter is peddling influence in China and cashing in on sappy memoirs—promoted by the liberal media, of course.
At this point, Hunter’s corruption is so egregious and well-documented that even left-leaning news outlets refuse to defend it. According to Politico, “Hunter Biden complicates [the] White House anti-corruption push.” Even across the pond, The Guardian claims “Hunter Biden’s art project [is] painting the president into an ethical corner.”
This isn’t a Republican talking point. Walter Shaub, who served as ethics chief in the Obama administration, put it best: “These are legitimate questions. It’s disappointing to hear [White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki] send a message that the [White House] thinks the public has no right to ask about ethics.” Touching on Hunter’s art dealings in particular, Shaub blasted the blatant hypocrisy: “If this were Trump, Xi, or Putin, you’d have no doubt whatsoever that this creates a vehicle for funneling cash to the first family in exchange for access or favors.”
He’s right. As the 2024 election approaches, Biden family members and their enablers have countless questions to answer about their corrupt practices, especially after spending the entire 2020 cycle accusing President Trump of skirting the law. President Biden’s latest “anti-corruption” charade only makes matters worse, insulting the intelligence of American voters who know hypocrisy when they see it.
The next presidential election may be years away, but you can already bet on Biden-related corruption taking center stage. Earlier this week, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) opened an investigation into President Biden, who allegedly broke the law by illegally raising and spending millions of dollars in post-election campaign funds. My organization, the Committee to Defeat the President, identified the Biden Victory Fund—the “Joint Fundraising Committee” for the Biden campaign apparatus—as illegally soliciting and accepting nearly $2 million in impermissible contributions. The ball is now in the FEC’s court, but campaign finance violations are clearly not beneath a political family so desperate for power.
Whatever the FEC determines, Americans cannot allow the Biden family’s corruption to slide. If American democracy truly relies on accountability and transparency to function, as so many anti-Trumpers have claimed in recent years, then President Biden surely needs to atone for the infinite examples of dodgy behavior in his personal orbit.
And, if President Biden refuses to speak up (as usual), then American voters will need to pursue accountability and transparency themselves—by voting him out of office.
Ted Harvey serves as chairman of the anti-Biden Committee to Defeat the President.