Joe Biden in Ireland: ‘I’m Proud of’ Hunter

US President Joe Biden, with his sister Valerie Biden (2nd L), and son Hunter Biden (L), a
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden said during his trip to Ireland that he is “proud” of his son Hunter and sister Valerie Biden Owens — both of whom are key players in the family influence peddling operation currently under multiple investigations.

“I’m here with my sister, Valerie, and my younger son, Hunter Biden,” Biden said. “Stand up, guys. I’m proud of you.”

A video shows Hunter and Valerie turning around to wave at the slowly applauding crowd:

Joe Biden has also referred to Hunter as “smartest guy I know.” Hunter is a practicing lawyer, artist, and former lobbyist.

Both Valerie and Hunter Biden are key associates in Biden’s international business schemes. While much has been reported on Hunter, Valerie is a lesser-known character. Yet both have worked in the family enterprise, as Breitbart News reported.

Valerie is chair of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. The institution received more than $6.7 million in anonymous donations from China, including direct funding from the Chinese government — all after Joe Biden set up a program under his name.

Email exchanges between Valerie, Hunter, and business associates show the Biden family planned to cash in on the family name at the university’s Biden Institute, Breitbart News reported in March. The emails also reveal the business partners discussing ways to carefully distance Joe from financial documents outlining the deal.

This is not the first time Joe Biden has brought family members abroad. In particular, Hunter  took 411 trips across 29 countries between 2009 and the middle of 2014, according to Secret Service travel records obtained by Judicial Watch.

One of those trips was to Beijing, China, in 2013. Ten days after the visit to China, Hunter secured a ten percent interest in BHR Partners, a Chinese state-backed investment fund.

Hunter has divested his ten percent interest in the fund, his lawyer claimed in November 2021. The business license for Hunter’s company, founded in Washington, DC, which holds the ten percent stake in BHR Partners, Skaneateles LLC, was revoked upon dissolution in September 2021, many months after Joe Biden assumed office.

It is unclear who purchased the ten percent stake or where Hunter’s ten percent share was transferred. Chinese records show Skaneateles still owns ten percent in BHR Partners.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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