On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Walter Shaub, who served as Director of the Office of Government Ethics under Presidents Obama and Trump, said you can’t believe “Hunter Biden is not trying to profit off of his father’s public service” with his art sales and that by shielding the identity of the buyers in order to ensure Hunter makes more money, the White House is giving a “stamp of approval on this profiting off of the father’s job.”
Shaub said, “[T]here’s no way to look at this and believe for a second that Hunter Biden is not trying to profit off of his father’s public service by selling art at these extraordinary prices when he hasn’t even juried into a community art fair before. And the White House intervening to ensure the secrecy of these sales is both naive and disingenuous. On the one hand, it’s naive because there’s no way this information is going to stay secret. You don’t spend half a million dollars on the president’s son’s piece of art to keep that a secret. And second, it sends a message that the White House is blessing this. They gave a quote to The Washington Post that seemed to suggest that if they opted for transparency and let the public monitor whether these individuals were getting preferential treatment after paying for this art, that it might ‘restrict interest’ was the phrase they said. Which I read as meaning, he might not make as much money. So, unfortunately, that puts a White House stamp of approval on this profiting off of the father’s job.”
Shaub added that he doesn’t think President Biden will allow himself to be bribed, but lots of people don’t have that much faith in the president, and Biden needs to reassure them.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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