Townhall's Katie Pavlich and Guy Benson joined Larry Kudlow Tuesday evening to discuss Hunter Biden's latest career — painting — and why the price tags on pieces created by President Biden's son are raising eyebrows.
As Leah explained, "ethics concerns over Hunter Biden’s foray into art are mounting as his pieces will reportedly be listed for between $75,000 and $500,000."
Hunter Biden — known for using the n-word and having a penchant for illicit substances and activities — claims art will be his full-time career. In addition to blowing paint through straws, he also plans drawn pieces and collages.
Larry Kudlow didn't hold back in evaluating Hunter's talent, saying "his stuff is crap" before asking Katie for her take on the value of Hunter's new career.
"I think that blowing paint through a straw onto a canvas or piece of paper in your poolhouse is probably the lowest bar in terms of what counts as art these days, and it's certainly not COVID-friendly," noted Katie. "I don't know who he's selling these things to, but they're certainly not buying them because they're beautiful or because they're made in a way that can be respected."
Hunter claims that, for him, "painting is much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth," but Katie points out it might be more about trying to bring forth money by using his family's name.
"They're obviously buying these things for an exorbitant amount of money because he's a Biden. This is a pattern he's had throughout the course of his life as an adult: Using the Biden family name to make a lot of money in exchange for access to his father."
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Katie also highlighted the lack of transparency in who forks over tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hunter's straw-blown paintings, saying "the anonymous portion of this — keeping the buyers anonymous — we don't know who they are, is a question for the ethics of the administration."
"Now, Hunter Biden doesn't work directly for them," she noted, "but given the history of selling the Biden name for access for meetings or access to the former vice president when he was not in the Oval Office, there are big questions here about what the motivation is behind the buyers of this, as you would say, crap art."
Guy also questioned the politics of Hunter's colorful creations, pointing out that "if his name were Hunter Smith and he put this out there for sale and got $50 for it he'd be lucky."
"It's like, hey, his last name is Biden, you can give him half a million dollars, don't worry as the buyer it's fully confidential *wink,* I wonder what people might be trying to purchase with that half-million dollars?" Guy questioned before noting this is not Hunter's first time profiting off the Biden name:
"I would say these paintings are worth 500-grand the same way that Hunter Biden was qualified enough in energy policy to make $83,000 a month from Burisma in Ukraine. It's clearly about one thing and not about the actual substance."
The process through which Hunter's art is being sold may be questionable, but it's an easier grift than those undertaken by some other political families.
"When I saw this story, it dawned on me: When do you think the Clintons realized that they, if they really wanted to, they didn't have to go through this whole rigamarole of setting up a foundation, and all this charity stuff, and all the fundraising," Guy said. "They could have had Hillary with finger paints, sold on a confidential basis for millions of dollars, and that's how they could have trafficked in this sort of grift that they were accused of."
"Even Obama's former ethics chief said yeah, you know, this seems a little fishy," Guy added.
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