Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, whose lucrative business dealings in Ukraine and China have triggered heavy scrutiny from Republicans, made a cameo appearance in the virtual 2020 Democrat National Committee (DNC) convention on Tuesday.
Hunter Biden made his first appearance at the DNC in a brief clip from his older brother Beau’s funeral in 2015 that was part of a video package teasing his stepmother Jill’s speech.
“Mom, it’s your strength that holds this family together,” an emotional Hunter declared in the clip. “And I know that you will make us whole again.”
Until that brief moment on Tuesday, Joe’s campaign had been trying to keep Hunter out of sight and out of mind, prompting questions on social media about his whereabouts arguably at the most pivotal breakthrough in his father’s decades-long and rocky quest to the Democrat presidential nomination.
As the Washington Times reported, it appears the Biden campaign found a “safe zone” to showcase Biden for a split-second on Tuesday.
Hunter has become toxic for his father’s presidential run, with President Donald Trump and the GOP questioning his hugely profitable business dealings in Ukraine and China during his father’s tenure as VP during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Last week, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) defended his ongoing probe into Hunter’s dealings with Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which was at the heart of the Democrat’s failed efforts to remove Trump from office via impeachment.
Johnson has vowed to release his findings ahead of the presidential election in November, drawing the ire of Democrats and the Biden campaign.
While his then-VP father was in charge of U.S. policy towards Ukraine, Hunter began serving on Burisma’s board of directors despite having no experience in energy matters, prompting allegations that he was using his father’s position for financial gain.
From April 2015 to April 2019, Hunter served on the company’s board, getting paid tens of thousands of dollars each month, more than the average executives with similar positions.
In early 2018, Joe boasted about threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine as VP in 2016 if the Eastern European country did not fire its top prosecutor who wanted to investigate the owner of Burisma for corruption.
Individuals from inside and outside the Obama administration warned of a conflict of interest stemming from Hunter’s position within Burisma while his father was in charge of America’s Ukraine policy.
In 2015, then-VP Biden’s office rebuffed concerns raised by an Obama administration official that Burisma was corrupt.
Hunter admitted in October 2019 that his father’s position as vice president helped him secure his hugely profitable spot with Burisma, but he has rejected as “ridiculous” the GOP’s assertion that he and his father engaged in wrongdoing.
Joe also conceded that it “looked bad” that Hunter was holding a lucrative seat on Burisma’s board while he was in charge of U.S. policy towards Ukraine. Still, the former VP denied any ethical lapse in judgment by him or his son.
Early this month, Joe’s campaign and other Democrats rebuked Republicans for daring to investigate Biden and his son ahead of the presidential election.
Sen. Johnson’s investigation is a “desperate taxpayer-funded smear campaign” based “on a farcical, long-debunked, hardcore rightwing conspiracy theory,” the campaign reportedly said last month.
Democrats have reportedly dismissed the GOP’s investigation into Joe and his son as an attempt to “launder and amplify” Russian disinformation ahead of the election.
Sen. Johnson vehemently denied that accusation.
While Hunter’s shady dealings in Ukraine have received the most attention, analysts and Republicans have accused Hunter of using his father’s position as VP to profit via international business relationships, namely in China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
Best-selling author Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a senior contributor for Breitbart News, has detailed Hunter’s questionable business dealings involving China’s communist government in his books.
President Trump has called on Beijing to investigate the Bidens for corruption.
Republican lawmakers have also expressed interest in probing Hunter’s dealings with China while his father was VP.
Early this month, U.S. intelligence officers warned that China favors Joe Biden over Trump as America’s president.
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