Hunter Biden is a mess.
Have Democrats learned nothing at all from Trump??
Change the focus.
Hunter Biden is an embarrassment. He is an acknowledged drug addict. He used his father's position to get himself jobs and business deals. He was stupid and careless about it. He created embarrassing documents, some of which he left on a laptop.
Hunter Biden will go through a bad period here. Republicans in the House announced they plan to investigate Hunter Biden nonstop. Fox News mentions Hunter Biden many times every hour. It is their excuse for not talking about Trump. Hunter's situation is not hopeless, however, if he does what Trump does so well. Attack.
Mitch McConnell said that Trump incited a crowd to overthrow the election. Trump responds by saying that McConnell's wife has corrupt dealings with the Chinese. When pressed about taking documents, Trump said George Bush took them and stored them in a bowling alley and Obama took millions of them to Chicago. Trump's accusations are easily dispatched as false, but the focus changed from Trump to McConnell, Bush, and Obama. The tactic works. It takes shamelessness. Hunter Biden can do this.
Of course Hunter Biden had access to jobs and business deals because he was Joe Biden's son. Every adult child of powerful people in America has some version of that advantage. It is one of the reasons parents work hard to get their children into elite universities. They get credentialed. They meet people who know people who are gatekeepers. Celebrity and relation to powerful people are one of the ways of getting through the gates to become a fellow gatekeeper.
Hunter Biden offers organizations association with a high-profile name. It is why opera singers are put onto the boards of banks. It is why retired generals are hired by military contractors to be lobbyists. It is why people who leave the House and Senate go to work on K Street. Given Hunter's sloppiness, I do not doubt emails and texts show that Hunter Biden was peddling access. Peddling access is what D.C. is all about.
When something is undeniable, lean into it. Name names. Make it costly for his accusers to accuse. Hunter Biden should be talking about the Saudi investment in Jared Kushner's new fund. Everyone in the financial services business knows that the Saudi investment smells of corrupt payback. Investment managers work years to build a track record that can justify an investment like that $2 billion Kushner got from Saudi Arabia. No fiduciary could justify it on objective merit. It was a payoff. It was a "thank you" for Trump foreign policy tilt toward Saudi Arabia. Friends help friends.
And in this week's news, after close U.S. negotiation with Oman about staying neutral in the Saudi war in Yemen, Oman announces a big licensing agreement to pay Trump to use Trump's name. Sweet.
Hunter Biden should answer every inquiry about his behavior with a "whatabout." Make their inquiry about Republican corruption.
Something like this:
Q: "What did you do for Burisma that merits the enormous amount they paid you?"
A: "They may have thought my legal advice brought credibility and intangible goodwill like the kind Ivanka Trump's trademark deal brought China. China was in intense trade negotiations with the Trump administration when China awarded Ivanka those million-dollar trademarks. Why aren't you looking at the jobs and qualifications of the adult children of members of this committee? Did they get a job that someone else was better qualified for, just because their parent is in Congress? Did they go to Yale Law School?
He would sound unlikeable and unresponsive. The answers do not need to be responsive. He is pointing a finger. Hunter Biden now has the reputation and look of someone pathetic. He has meth teeth. He looks like easy prey. Fox News would not be so comfortable attacking him if Hunter's responses to them kept being about the Fox coverup of Bill O'Reilly's sexual predation and the qualifications of Rupert Murdock's sons to run the company. Change the focus. Make attacks boomerang. Of course, Biden would look like a guy who doesn't answer questions and who is constantly on the attack. That is the point. That might also be why Burisma would pay him handsomely. (That Hunter Biden can fight!) Better to look like a pit bull than a doormat.
Hunter Biden has a giant target, one that should be hugely uncomfortable for his attackers. Crony capitalism and crony politics are two parts of the same system. Hunter is in it. So are his accusers.