https://www.axios.com/2023/12/14/hunter-biden-impeachment-president-republicansAfter mostly lying low for years, Hunter Biden is publicly hitting back at Republicans — a more aggressive approach he believes will help him and President Biden, according to people familiar with his team's thinking.
Why it matters: That's what led Hunter to go to the Capitol grounds Wednesday — not to be deposed in private, as House Republicans investigating the Bidens wanted — but to confront the GOP on camera for its tactics, and not letting him publicly testify as he offered.
In some of his most direct public remarks in years, Hunter said "there is no fairness or decency" in GOP efforts to connect his foreign business dealings to an impeachment inquiry into his father.
Later Wednesday, Hunter told Axios that Republicans "have weaponized my dad's love for me, and turned his greatest strengths — his compassion, his empathy, his authenticity — into evidence of corrupt complicity. They've made it really hard for people to square that circle, which is why the Trump cult is obsessed with me."
"I feel I have two equal responsibilities now," he added. "The first is staying clean and sober, and the second is defending my dad. My mistakes are in spite of him — not a reflection of him. And that's why I need to call out their lies as loud and as often possible going forward."
Between the lines: Hunter's new strategy has caused tension between his team and the White House. Top aides to President Biden originally crafted a plan to largely not respond to attacks and conservative media coverage — a risk-averse approach to avoid giving stories more oxygen.
But Hunter's team ultimately wasn't satisfied. The media coverage didn't die down. His team came to believe that his lack of a response was alienating potential Democratic allies — and hurting his father politically.
The team’s thinking: If voters believe Hunter's corrupt, they'll see Joe Biden's integrity as suspect, too.
