Hunter Biden deserves the Don Jr. treatment from Congress
Tiana Lowe Doescher
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From bunking in Malibu to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Hunter Biden has spent years running from child support pleas, criminal charges, and congressional inquiry into his overseas business dealings. Now, nearly three years into his father’s presidency, the first son has been slapped with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.
The younger Biden has pretended to be compliant with the authorities all along, demanding a public hearing on Dec. 13. But not only does Biden have zero choice in the matter, he also deserves the exact same treatment given to the progeny of his father’s predecessor.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE MUST BE BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL
Recall that in the heyday of the Russia collusion hysteria, Donald Trump Jr. sat for not one, but two days of closed-door testimony related to the Trump campaign’s contact with Russian nationals. On Sept. 7, 2017, he testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and on Dec. 6, he testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee. Recall that both chambers were controlled by Republicans, who were willing to put their own president’s son in the withering spotlight under the penalty of perjury.
As evidenced most clearly by the catastrophe that was the confirmation process of eventual Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the televising of government proceedings has become a double-edged sword. While we welcome the transparency of getting to see lawmakers do their jobs in real time, the most ambitious (and often least insightful) politicians use the presence of a camera to hijack the boring inner workings of bureaucracy to cut a campaign ad. Consider that the entire national career of Kamala Harris was orchestrated over clips that graduated from C-SPAN to CNN, turning a freshman senator into a vice president not yet ready for prime time.
But the real problem with a public testimony is not that deferential Democrats would filibuster their five minutes of questioning to wax poetic about a father’s love for his son. Rather, the prodigal son has spent so many decades cruising from Lake Como to Kazakhstan while trading on the Biden family name that in a public hearing, Biden would either:
Refuse to answer questions under the phony excuse of preserving national security, or Refuse to answer questions under the actual excuse of preserving national security
The former would be a lie, but the latter would be far more terrifying, as it would indicate that Biden was indeed implicated in his father’s work while he was a heartbeat away from the presidency.
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A playboy patrician who once passed the time with Russian hookers and crystal meth, Biden is not a terribly sympathetic figure, tragic childhood backstory aside. If House Republicans think Biden could make their case for them in public, why not have an auxiliary show trial for television? But to deliver actual accountability to the public, Congress must close the doors and make Biden deliver the goods that, for national security purposes, are probably not safe for TV.