Even as he faces a rapidly-intensifying federal tax fraud inquiry, President Joe Biden's sister stated on Monday that Donald Trump is focused on dragging her family down and argued that Hunter Biden is not an issue for the family.
Valerie Biden Owens, 76, defended her nephew's international business connections by claiming that there had been none since before the 2020 presidential election.
President Joe Biden's Sister Says Hunter Is Blameless Victim
During an interview with CBS Mornings to promote her new memoir, 'Growing Up Biden,' Owens, a longtime Joe Biden confidante and political adviser, also told host Gayle King that she believes her 79-year-old big brother was the 'right person' to run for president again in 2024 despite his advanced age.
Owens claimed that the 'one race' she had misgivings about was his 2020 candidacy against Trump despite staying behind him and playing a crucial part in all of his campaigns. Hunter Biden's business operations in Ukraine and China, some of which happened while his father was Barack Obama's vice president, have prompted Republicans in Washington to demand an investigation.
The contents of a laptop he reportedly left at a Delaware computer shop were first disclosed by the New York Post in October 2020, revealing Hunter Biden's overseas links. It included a slew of email correspondences with foreign business partners, raising doubts about how much, if any, awareness and involvement the now-president had in the proceedings.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump and his associates exploited the laptop to smear Biden, but the paucity of mainstream media coverage ensured the issue would have minimal impact on the general electorate, according to Daily Mail.
As stated in Independent, Owens claims that her nephew has written openly about his struggles with addiction, a topic on which Trump pounced on Biden at the first general election debate in September 2020. The key inquiry was not about Biden's addiction, but about his financial activities.
The younger Biden's financial transactions have been a topic of controversy. Trump attempted to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to probe Hunter Biden's financial affairs while in government. According to the Washington Post, a federal grand jury heard testimony concerning payments he received while on the board of a Ukrainian energy business earlier this month.
Valerie Biden Owens Also Defends Brother Over Stumbling Speeches
Last month, Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson moved to the Senate floor to raise concerns about Hunter Biden's financial ties to the Chinese government.
The contents of Hunter Biden's laptop were revealed in a bombshell report by the New York Post in 2020, which was largely dismissed by the media as Russian disinformation at the time. However, liberal media outlets changed their tune in 2022 after newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times authenticated thousands of his emails.
Hunter Biden is the subject of a federal investigation that began in 2018 and is now allegedly heating up as prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office in Delaware seek grand jury evidence on his overseas revenue sources. Owens also defended Joe Biden, whom she referred to as Joey during the interview, and his fumbling speeches and stories, which have been widely panned.
According to Owens, the siblings also converse on the phone frequently, generally about 10 pm. Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has been largely absent from the public spotlight in recent weeks although his wife Melissa Cohen was photographed on Friday near their Malibu home at a premium Los Angeles restaurant.
The Secret Service is reportedly spending $30,000 per month in taxpayer cash to rent out a property near the Biden family's $20,000 per month Malibu home, according to reports. During her excursion on Friday, Cohen seemed to be escorted by Secret Service officials, Fox News reported.
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