On Thursday, the indictment of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, elicited robust responses from various 2024 presidential contenders.
Issued by DOJ Special Counsel David Weiss in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the indictment comprises nine charges. These accusations pertain to a “four-year scheme” wherein Hunter Biden allegedly neglected to pay federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 and submitted fraudulent tax reports.
Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy expressed his perspective on the timing of the indictment on X.
“The timing of the Hunter Biden tax indictment is one more sign that the deep state is planning to sideline Biden & pick a new puppet for 2024, all the while using this indictment as a perfect fig leaf to claim that the Trump prosecutions aren’t politically motivated. Kills two birds with one stone,” he said.
The timing of the Hunter Biden tax indictment is one more sign that the deep state is planning to sideline Biden & pick a new puppet for 2024, all the while using this indictment as a perfect fig leaf to claim that the Trump prosecutions aren’t politically motivated. Kills two…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 8, 2023
Nikki Haley, the former U.N. Ambassador, also provided her perspective on the timing of the indictment.
“The fact that the Justice Department slow-walked the Hunter Biden case despite serious allegations & nearly gave him a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal a few months ago shows how damaged the Justice Dept. has become. We need to clean it out from top to bottom,” she wrote, referring to Hunter’s plea agreement on two federal tax charges and a gun charge that fell apart in July.
When questioned about the indictment, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis voiced skepticism towards the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“Obviously, I think Hunter Biden has a lot of problems with criminal liability. I’ve been saying that for a long time. I wonder whether this is something where they’re going to be able to point to and say, see, you can’t say that they’re going after Trump because they’re even going after the president’s son, and that is totally apolitical,” he said. DeSantis speculated that Biden might eventually pardon Hunter and doubted that Hunter would “actually face full justice.”
Asa Hutchinson, the former Governor of Arkansas who is actively pursuing a presidential bid, adopted a contrasting position.
“We should stand back and let the case proceed without politics overhanging every court appearance. No one should rejoice in the President’s son being indicted, but I am a rule of law champion, and it seems our system of Justice is working even though it was almost derailed by a premature plea agreement that the Court rejected,” he said.
Chris Christie, the ex-Governor of New Jersey, commented on the accusations of questionable business dealings involving both Hunter and Joe Biden.
“The relationship between Hunter and Joe—who knows what we’re going to find out? Is there a financial relationship between the two of them? I think there’s no doubt the father has provided support to the son. There’s no doubt about that,” Christie said. “I have no doubt knowing Joe Biden—I’ve known him for 40 years—that he would be supportive of his son’s business ventures.”
Democratic candidate and author Marianne Williamson shared her perspective on how the indictment might affect Biden’s chances in the re-election campaign.
“With Democrats needing to make the case to the American people that we should have the White House for another four years, this would undoubtedly be a distraction should the President be our nominee,” she said.
