Hunter Biden has found his next lucrative opportunity to cash in on his last name. It’s too bad the White House’s cover story for the scheme has fallen apart.
President Joe Biden’s deadbeat son snagged a gig that could bring as much as $500,000 apiece for his pedestrian artwork that includes abstract blown ink creations — as if that’s what the buyers would actually be after.
The White House provided a pinky promise that the buyer would remain completely anonymous, ensuring that some foreign oligarch would not be dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on the artworld equivalent of macaroni art with the real intention of obtaining political influence.
When asked about the safeguards against such an obvious hustle, White House press secretary Jen Psaki assured reporters everything would be above board.
“Well, I can tell you that after careful consideration, a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards,” Psaki said at a July 9 White House news briefing.
“Of course, he has the right to pursue an artistic career, just like any child of a president has the right to pursue a career,” she said of the 51-year-old.
“But all interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by a professional gallerist adhering to the highest industry standards. And any offer out of the normal course would be rejected out of hand.”
When pressed further on whether the White House will vet buyers to ensure there would be no expectation of political favors for the pricetag, Psaki was dismissive and smug.
“Well, I think it would be challenging for an anonymous person who we don’t know and Hunter Biden doesn’t know to have influence,” she said. “So that’s a protection.”
Unfortunately, those assurances fell apart Thursday after it was revealed that Hunter Biden would meet with prospective buyers, thus dropping any pretense of anonymity.
The younger Biden will have two shows in the fall, one of them a private event in Los Angeles and another at New York’s Georges Bergès Gallery, and he’s expected to attend both, CBS News reported.
“Oh yes. With pleasure,” gallery spokeswoman Robin Davis said when asked whether Hunter Biden will be attending. “He’s looking forward to it. It is like someone debuting in the world. And of course he will be there,” she said.
This is certainly a problem, as Walter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, pointed out.
Shaub charged that leaving the art gallery owner in charge of keeping everything on the up and up was the equivalent of the White House “outsourcing government ethics” to the owner.
“Is Hunter Biden going to walk around the art show with a blindfold on?” Shaub quipped, illustrating the absurdity of the arrangement and assurances.
“It just goes to show you the focus isn’t on government ethics,” he said. “It’s just showing the child of a president can cash in on the presidency.”
It’s difficult to imagine that this art show won’t be another one of Hunter Biden’s attempts to trade on his famous name, especially with him rubbing elbows with prospective buyers — and considering his history of doing just that.
The information leaked from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop allegedly showed how his name skirted an investigation of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where he sat on the board and raked in thousands per month in salary despite no previous experience in the industry, courtesy of the powerful influence from dear old dad.
There was also evidence that President Joe Biden — then vice president — schmoozed Mexican billionaires at the Naval Observatory while the younger Biden was brokering a deal with them even as the elder Biden has sworn he’s never talked business with his son.
But the laptop also revealed that Hunter Biden was trying to put together a deal in China that would be “interesting for me and my family” with a kickback to the “big guy.”
The common thread through all of these schemes is that Hunter Biden makes money not on his own talents or abilities, but on his famous name and the direct pipeline he has to the highest echelons of political power in the U.S.
Sure, in the art world where a banana taped to a wall can rake in $120,000, it’s possible that the former crack cocaine addict, who was kicked out of the U.S. Navy for failing a drug test and hasn’t done anything of worth since, could bring in big money for his ho-hum pieces.
But it’s safe to say the curators at Georges Bergès Gallery wouldn’t give Hunter Biden a sniff except for the fact that his last name is the same as the president’s.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.