2020 candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, pledged on Sunday to resign from the board of the Chinese equity firm at the heart of President Donald Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory about the Bidens’ alleged corruption.
His choice but it won’t stop the relentless attacks from the Right.
Now it’s time for the trumpp children to drop out of the trumpp organization.
Eric Trump and his older brother, Donald Trump Jr., run the Trump Organization, which conducts business — and takes in tens of millions of dollars annually — around the globe and is still owned by the president. The company is forging ahead with projects in Ireland, India, Indonesia and Uruguay, and is licensing the Trump name in such turbulent areas as Turkey and the Philippines.
About time someone pointed out the obvious.
I do hope that an enterprising aspirant for the Democratic nomination makes this an issue! The blatant hypocrisy of the “Hunter Biden made money in China” narrative is galling, and for some reason the media is simply giving Jarvanka a pass — instead of bringing it up each time Trump mentions “Jina.”
Would their staying in for now make it more likely that they end up in jail?
Arguably resigning could make things worse.
“If he wasn’t doing anything wrong, why did he have to resign?!?!?”
Release the hounds, open the gates of Hell,anything,on the Trump children.
Do it now and do honestly.
Yeah, there are negatives either way. If he stays with the firm, it’s a continuing R attack point, and if he goes, the Bidens look like they’re being weak and bullied.
It had to be a tough choice, but I would have had Hunter remain on the board. The time for for him to resign, in order to avoid even a hint of impropriety, was when Joe Biden announced his candidacy. Not as a reaction to being questioned on whether this was a good thing for Hunter to be involved in, with his Dad as an ex-VP and running for President.
It doesn’t just make Biden look like he’s being successfully bullied by Trump, it also reinforces the idea that he’s not a good campaign strategist.
“since Hunter obtained his equity interest”
Resignation isn’t a good look for Camp Biden. I haven’t seen a cogent explanation from them as to why and how Hunter obtained that equity interest. Highly probable that the Chinese partners pressured him because they do not like the bright lights.
Trump’s "false claims???"
How about removing the varnish from that little construct and calling a spade a shovel?
Trump’s obvious lies is much more truthful and direct.
The LA Times missed the most recent foreign Trump project –
He recently got approval to build dozens of mansions around his Aberdeen Scotland golf course. This sounds like payola to me – given that Trump had gotten approval for a bunch of environmentally destructive changes at Aberdeen based on a promise to build a new hotel on the same land. Why would a town council approve a deal like this, when it will have very little long term benefit to the local economy, and Trump has already reneged on its original promise?
This may go against the TPM grain here, but I don’t think that’s a winning tactic. “Both sides do it” just reinforces the idea that a politico’s family taking advantage of their connections is a legal, but questionable, form of soft corruption.
You win elections by showing that your candidate is better than the other one. Not by saying the other side is just as bad.
Trump’s attack on Biden is scurrilous and inexcusable, as he did nothing illegal.
But there remains an issue of the elites cashing in on their connections and their proximity to power - most of which is legal in our system. And that’s a problem. As an example, Carl Icahn has clearly benefited unethically from his contacts within the Trump Administration.
I don’t think you need to go “both sides do it”. You can instead label it as Trump projecting his own corruption (and that of his children) on others.
When I see Hunter Biden, I think of Jeb Bush and the Bush family. The Wrong Son. The wrong one got elected president. So instead of Beau and his bright future that will never be, we’ve got Hunter and all his self-inflicted problems. Joe Biden’s campaign would be better served if Hunter and all his baggage went invisible.
Unfortunately this just feeds the rumors that there is something there, there.
I think he was right to resign, on the grounds that there’s no point being on the board of a company if it’s just going to lead an enormous mess for the company. Also, there is a potential conflict of interest, even if Biden Jr has done nothing wrong. The offspring of Democratic presidential candidates have to find some way of making (even more) money other than by dipping their snouts in geopolitically sensitive, opaque, hyper-capitalistic ventures. It’s different for Republicans because they actually stand for international corruption, inequality, servicing the 0.1% and stiffing everyone else. Crookedness is their thing, and it’s up to Democrats to brand them accordingly. It’s hard to do that with guys like Hunter Biden popping up in Ukraine and China for no reason that is comprehensible to ordinary Americans (including me).
Bumbling thug Trump has hurt Biden … badly.
Man, that’s padding the punch …