We recently discussed how the media has made Hunter Biden a type of collective reclamation project — ignoring evidence of a new possible federal crime while not challenging glaring omissions and contradictions in his interviews. That includes avoiding a gun controversy even as his father calls for a new law to address the very issue raised by Hunter. This collective willful blindness was evident in the interview conducted last night by Jimmy Kimmel where the two joked about Hunter’s convenient lack of memory. Hunter goes blank on incriminating issues even though he can remember other details going back to when he was eight years old.
Hunter was asked again about his controversial work with Burisma but again the interview avoided addressing obvious and embarrassing contradictions. Hunter wrote: “Did I make a mistake by taking a seat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company? No. Did I display a lack of judgment? No. Would I do it again? No.” He insisted that he would only forego the money because “what I didn’t take into account was the way in which they would use the perception against my dad.”
Hunter then emphasized that he was qualified to serve on the board of an energy company after serving on “a dozen boards” like those for Amtrak and World Food Program U.S., and overall “expertise on corporate governance.”
For anyone remotely familiar with Hunter’s history, the only thing more maddening than that answer was the failure of Kimmel to have any substantive follow up.
For thirty years, I have written about the corruption on Washington in the use of spouses and children to gain influence with our leaders. I criticized it with Democrats as well as Republicans. Hunter Biden has long been one of the most egregious examples of that corruption. That is why it is so frustrating to watch the media whitewash this scandal.
Hunter used his father’s position to assume these positions — a history that was an open joke in Washington. I wrote about Hunter’s history as an example of the corruption of Washington and the role of nepotism for years, including a piece in 2014 when he was put on the Burisma board. Like many spouses and children of our politicians, Hunter Biden made a fortune as a lobbyist in Washington. That common path for children continues to raise troubling questions of influence peddling and corruption for our leaders as discussed in this earlier column.
As discussed earlier, Hunter Biden has the prototypical resume of the progeny of the powerful in Washington. He seemed to land jobs far beyond his experience or proven skills. Most law school graduates work for six years just to make junior partner in a firm. Yet, directly out of law school in 1996, he was given a lucrative position with MBNA America, a bank that was not only a campaign contributor to his father but a business actively lobbying for lending changes in Congress. His father, then a powerful senator, supported changes that benefited the bank.
Within a couple years of graduating, Hunter Biden amazingly ascended to the position of executive vice president. He was then given a position in the Commerce Department before he became an industry lobbyist. In 2006, President Bush made him a member of the board of directors of Amtrak. No one seriously argued at the time that his resume even remotely qualified him for that position, any more than his assuming the board chairmanship of the United Nations World Food Program.
At the time, Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware explained that Hunter Biden was qualified to get on the board of Amtrak because “Hunter Biden has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains.”
Ignoring conflicts in the interview was no easy task. Kimmel made reference to Hunter’s struggle with drugs without noting that Hunter admits to being a crack addict all the way up to his father’s 2020 presidential election. Hunter left that off of his description of his work on Burisma. While Hunter was claiming blackouts of memory due to his crack addiction, he was also claiming that he was a natural choice for the board of an major energy company. Burisma and other companies not only gave massive payments to someone without any notable skills or experience, they hired someone who was a drug addict who was, by his own account, a total trainwreck. However, he was hired for abilities and insights on energy and corporate management?
Kimmel also helps out Hunter in his convenient lapses of memory. When asked, Hunter just shrugged and took a dig at Rudy Giuliani: ” I think, within my rights to question anything that comes from the desk of Rudy Giuliani. And so I don’t know is the answer.”
Kimmel then repeats Hunter’s excuse that he was in a haze throughout this period (which overlapped with the Burisma position): “I’ve seen you on some interviews, you know, talking about the laptop … and when they asked you if that was your laptop, you say you don’t know, which is hard to believe unless you read the book. And then it’s like, I’m surprised you have shoes on.”
The problem is that Hunter remembered a great deal of details when it served his narrative. It is only on issues like the laptop or fathering a child that he claims a total blackout.
Kimmel also ignores that Hunter has been going over these emails and pictures with counsel, the FBI, and campaign officials for over a year. Other individuals have authenticated the emails as real. It is facially absurd to suggest that Hunter has no idea if the laptop or its content are authentic. Instead, the media has allowed him to continue to suggest that the laptop may be the creation of Russian intelligence.
The concerted effort of many in the media to manage this scandal for Hunter and the Biden family should be a concern of anyone who values an independent media. The repetition of such plainly false narratives is common in countries with state medias. What is different is that there is no central coordinating agency. This narrative is maintained by general consent of a media that now actively shapes rather than reports news.
Kimmel is obviously not a journalist. However, his show demonstrates how this false narrative is being replicated across news and entertainment forums. It is a well-executed effort to remove this scandal for President Biden by converting a privileged son into a type of hero of our times. Rather than discuss his history as a deadbeat dad, influence peddler, and other facts, the media is driving home the image of an American Odysseus who overcame every challenge.
The fact is that it will likely work. This scandal is simply not convenient so Hunter will have to be a redeeming rather than a reprehensible figure. So the Hunter Biden reclamation project will continue.
But when it was their turn to be constitutional Hunter was part of the aristocratic establishment and got away with everything just like Comrade Clinton
Comrade Von Kimmel deserved ejecting from our Constitutional Republic
How about his wonderful work whit his husband and children.
I have to agree Hunter Biden is a seriously messed up drug addict and alcoholic who apparently has suffered mental illness and PTSD since childhood. His family has suffered horrific tragedies and he credits his dad for his unwavering love. That love obviously has not been enough for him to fight his demons of addiction and irresponsibility. I read Hunter’s book and it will take a miracle apart from the one he claimed married him after they professed their love on the first date, to heal this bruised but privileged soul! It is beyond sad but his life reads as one train wreck after the other with a pause that I pray for him will be an ultimate end to the roller coaster of bad decisions he has made. I would not be surprised if he does not have some sort of bi polar or other deeper mental health challenge, because of his reckless nature. It won’t be surprising if irregularities, or even crimes will be uncovered by investigations into his past. He simply is not someone with sound reasoning. Who marries their brother’s widow especially after confessing his deep and abiding love for his dear brother. That had to be totally uncomfortable for the whole family. The widow bears responsibility also. But more is, he would be totally forgotten if his father had not risen to the Presidency. Now, he like all other political figures and politically aligned figures will make more money for more crack because I do not believe he is clean!
Is it possible to drown in the smugness of people like Jimmy Kimmel? He’s on Chucky Schumer’s speed dial list of useful idiots. It’s so gross how celebrities suck up to Democrat politicians and their offspring. One of the worst suck-ups was Julia Roberts gushing over Dr. Fauci and Hollywood giving him a special ‘hero award’ or some idiocy for doing his j.o.b. very badly. Does Hollywood know how despised they are by much of the country at this point?
Jimmy Kimmel is on board because he likes keeping his job and doesn’t want to get “canceled”.
antonio
Kamala Harris is an empty pantsuit.
Apparently for Pedos Crack Cocaine isn’t just for breakfast any more. LOL;)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/hunter-bidens-laptop-finally-news-reporting-october-making-splash/
The pedophile defenders are out in force today.
You guys should head to the border. Plenty of helpless and parentless children there.
Johnny Carson, who was also a liberal BTW, was ten times better than Kimmel and all the other late-night rodeo clowns. Heck, Baghdad Bob was funnier than late night these days. Woke humor is not funny. Woke drama is not compelling. With few exceptions, corporate media has become cheap and formulaic.
Woke entertainment is very much like the Soviet Union’s idea of culture… an ugly, nasty, boring monolith of lies and groupthink.
Jonathan: Like a junkyard dog you have Hunter Biden by the leg and you won’t let go. Hunter is no golden boy. He used his family name to get jobs on corporate boards. But neither you, the Republican controlled Senate nor Trump 2020 election were able to come up with more than allegations and innuendo–in search of a crime. Last year Republican Senator Ron Johnson, no stranger to conspiracy theories, launched an investigation into allegations that Joe Biden and his son were involved in some nefarious scheme in the Ukraine–all in an attempt to tarnish Biden as a candidate. Both Johnson and the Trump campaign were trying to prove Biden’s “unfitness for office”. After months of investigation and testimony from ten witnesses what did Johnson have to show for his effort? An 87 page report that contained nothing, nada, zilch! In fact all the witnesses rebutted all of Johnson’s allegations that Biden used his position as VP at the time to manipulate US foreign policy to benefit his son. But the failure of Johnson or Trump to come up with any dirt on the Biden’s has not stopped you from continuing the witch hunt with unfounded allegations that Hunter Biden could be charged with a “possible federal crime”. What crime? You don’t say. If there were violations of some federal criminal statue no doubt you would filling your column with chapter and verse. So far as I can determine using your family name to get jobs on corporate boards is not a crime. Otherwise a lot of people would be doing hard time and boards would be desperate to find new board members. Landing “jobs far beyond his [Hunter’s] experience” , to use your words, is also not a crime. Maybe the Burisma board of directors should not have hired a former “crack addict” but that’s not a crime either. Instead of beating a dead horse you should concentrate on some real crimes–like sex trafficking of minor girls by the low-life Rep. Matt Gaetz. Now there is a guy who needs to be held accountable.
Hunter Biden is an enormous security risk to this nation. Matt Gaetz is not. Attacking JT for pursuing what media won’t and FBI can’t ask is unacceptable and shortsighted.
Instead of beating a dead horse you should concentrate on some real crimes–like the rape of minor girls by the low-life Bill Clinton on Epstein’s Lolita Express. Now there is a guy who needs to be held accountable.
But neither you, the Republican controlled Senate nor Trump 2020 election were able to come up with more than allegations and innuendo–in search of a crime.
Crime. Thats the rub.
But when its a Democrat, its…”There is no controlling legal authority.
But when its a Republican, its…Its not the nature of the evidence, but the seriousness of the accusation.
I always thought Alice in Wonderland was a charming kids fantasy, but Democrats use it as a how to manual.
You say that because you choose (to watch msnbc) not to dig for the facts. This kid and father are a disgrace to America. Now in the process of destroying it. I’d be sick if me my kids or my kids kids kids had to worry about a income in their lives. Instead I’ll choose to sit back and watch useful idiots destroy a gift called America. After you cheat the democracy, it is crumbling already. Either a instant correction by voters or she will crumble at light speed. Enjoy news you need to hear instead of hearing real news based on facts. I can’t get over the morons in this country. Blinded by a failing ideology.
It’s endlessly entertaining to see how mesmerized Turley is by Hunter Biden. Okay, we get it, you’re upset Bush nominated Hunter to the Amtrak board of directors & the Senate unanimously confirmed him when Republicans had a Senate majority. You’re utterly dismayed that any Yale law school grad could land a lucrative job so quickly. You are beside yourself that the media was suspicious of Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, somehow coming into possession of Hunter’s laptop, then giving the purported contents to the New York Post one month before the 2020 election.
I wholeheartedly salute JT’s mission to expose false narratives being replicated across news and entertainment forums.
And Yale/ Amtrak not the problem. You know it. Supercilious silly snarky replies won’t help transparency in a propagandized nation where addicts sell info to our enemies for money and even more influence peddling, while the double standard continues. Imagine if this were Eric Trump Jr accused.
Jimmy Kimmel proves once again he is nothing but a pissant.
Turley proves once again that he is a paid hack–keeps trying to breathe life into a “scandal” dreamed up by the Republicans. That dog won’t hunt, Turley. Do you get a bonus every time you write something accusing Hunter Biden of crimes?
Nothing to see here, right boys? Hunter Biden is a danger to our nation. He is not just another privileged junkie pedophile, but a treasonous leaker. I trust Guliani, warts and all.
NUTCHACHA,
Asks herself daily, what in the world would I be without unconstitutional forced busing, generational welfare, quotas, affirmative action, rent control, minimum wage, “fair housing,” “non-discrimination” and “hate crime” laws, WIC, TANF, HAMP, HARP, HUD, HHS, etc., etc., etc.?
NUTCHACHA is the personification of unconstitutional.
As much as I understand the frustration shown by Professor Turley, I do not share it. Jimmy Kimmel is an entertainer and not a news man. It is his job to entertain, not to find the truth. Yes, he is adding to the obfuscation of Hunter Biden, but the people that will watch Jimmy Kimmel are not going to care about Hunter Biden anyway. Hunter Biden is not going away and at some point it is going to end up in front of Congress if not Justice.
If anyone thinks that any politician is going to seriously go after Hunter Biden for anything other than try and either hurt or embarrass his father Joe, you had better start to read up on the way Washington works. Hunter is goi h to a gift for Republicans that will keep on giving.
You don’t have much regard for people who watch Jimmy Kimmel. Do they not vote? Do they not care about the character of the people that they elect to run this country?
Also, do you think Jimmy Kimmel would have given this guy such a softball interview if he and his Dad was a Republican?
Tucker Carlson’s lawyers argued in court that he shouldn’t be trusted to give his viewers factual information, even when he claims that something is a fact.
Why do you hold Jimmy Kimmel to higher standards than Tucker Carlson?
As for “Do they not care about the character of the people that they elect to run this country?,” Hunter Biden is not an elected representative.