Few presidents, and even few Americans, have suffered as much personal tragedy as Joe Biden. Biden lost his first wife and young daughter to a tragic car accident in 1972. Both of his sons, Hunter and Beau, were badly hurt in that accident. Forty-three years later, Beau, the older of Biden’s two sons, succumbed to cancer. Hunter, one of Biden’s two surviving children, has had a tough life primarily because of his long battles with substance abuse.

There is more to the Hunter Biden story than that. The President’s only living son has sleazily and unethically, traded off the family name to make money in countries like China and Ukraine. Hunter Biden has made money by sitting on boards and advising foreign companies that he never could have made if his name were Hunter Smith or Hunter Lopez. Given his experience and resume it is indisputable that Hunter Biden has been able to enrich himself because he is the son of a very powerful American politician. Even the most partisan Democrat must recognize that.

Predictably, the Republicans have seized on Hunter Biden’s story believing that it reveals something much more nefarious about the President, and that by investigating Hunter Biden they will uncover such widespread corruption that the Biden presidency will collapse. This is magical thinking, but it is an article of faith among the base of the GOP. Accordingly, it is very likely that the Republican led House of Representatives will begin an investigation of Hunter Biden early this year. That investigation will focus on Hunter Biden’s activities overseas as well as the contents of his laptop. It has an article of MAGA faith that Hunter Biden’s laptop which fell into the hands of a repair shop owner who turned it over to the FBI contained secrets that would reveal the deep evil and various plots in which Joe Biden is enmeshed. The corollary to this fantasy is that the media, including social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, were complicit in Democratic efforts to conceal this story in the days leading up to the 2020 election.

The investigation is likely to accomplish little other than to continue to stoke the outrage and grievance to which the Republican Party has become addicted. One obvious reason for this is that while Hunter Biden’s actions are hardly upstanding, he seems like a monk who has taken a vow of poverty compared to the avarice and corruption of the older children of the previous president. Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump enriched themselves while their father was in office through everything from transactions with shady foreign leaders, to contracts for Ivanka’s clothing line, even to having the RNC purchase thousands of copies of Donald Jr’s book.

While Hunter Biden himself is not a sympathetic figure, Joe Biden has conducted himself, by all accounts, as a devoted father who loves, cares and worries about Hunter. Any American who has a child, sibling, parent or other loved one who has wrestled with substance abuse can relate to, and probably admire, how the President has sought to be a father to his only living son. The President has also made mistakes with regards to his son. He should have made it clear to Hunter that it was absolutely not okay to serve on foreign boards and therefore otherwise facilitate the appearance that he was selling access to his father.

The GOP plan to investigate Hunter Biden also underscores the asymmetry between how Democrats view Biden and how the base of the GOP still views Trump. There is no cult of Biden that believes the president, and therefore his family, is infallible. While partisan Democrats may believe that Hunter Biden’s offenses are not serious ones, they do not think that investigating him is prima facie outrageous. It is notable that Republican threats to investigate Hunter Biden has been met largely by the political equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders by many Democrats who generally believe that if Hunter Biden committed a crime he should be held accountable, but a retelling of his unethical behavior personal foibles and substance abuse does not provoke strong feelings one way or another.

A substantial group within the Republican Party is obsessed with Hunter Biden and somehow thinks that if he is exposed the entire Democratic-Biden-Harris edifice will come crashing down. That is the fevered fantasy of MAGA loyalists, but it has slowly taken over the party. The very real prospect that the Republicans squander their House majority by investigating the President’s son, rather than, for example, proposing conservative solutions to problems facing the country, or simply trying to stop the Biden administration in a rational and competent way, is great news for the Biden administration. Two years of hare-brained investigations beginning with Hunter Biden will be a boon to Biden’s reelection efforts. Smart Republicans know that, but they are outnumbered by the MAGA fanatics.

Photo: cc/Louise Palanker

Lincoln Mitchell