For quite some time now, former Obama White House ethics chief Walter Shaub has called out Hunter Biden, the president’s son, newfound “art career,” which he argued as a vehicle for funneling cash to the first family in exchange for influence. While the House House has kept awfully quiet about Hunter’s endeavors, they emphasized how the buyers’ identities would be kept a secret from everyone involved.
Hunter’s first art show was at a private New York gallery, in which he sold his paintings between $75,000 and $500,00 apiece. It was alarming how high the price tags are since Biden is not known as an artist or “critically acclaimed” in the art world. Biden’s artwork, according to art critics, was considered nothing short of mediocre.
The White House even entered an unusual arrangement with the gallery, in which Hunter is shielded from knowing who buys his paintings. His work garnered a total of $375,000 in sales at a Los Angeles art gallery earlier in the month, with some being sold at $75,000 apiece.
But Shaub argued the loopholes in this unsteady deal. He said Hunter Biden could easily see who is trying to secure influence with the White House and find the identity of the buyers. He even criticized White House press secretary Jen Psaki for choosing to excuse the Hunter Biden topic when a reporter asked about it. She told him that there’s “a lot going on in the world” before quickly switching topics.
“It still is the purview of the gallerist. We still do not know and will not know who purchases any paintings. And the president remains proud of his son. Did you have another question about something else? Otherwise, we’re going to move on to some other topics, there’s a lot going on in the world,” Psaki said.
Shaub pushed back that these are reasonable questions as the U.S public has a right to know about these shady art deals related back to the White House and Hunter Biden’s five-minute art career. He said he found it alarming that Psaki thinks she can dictate what the members of the press ask her during the briefings.
“There is no ethics program in the world that can be built around the head of state’s staff working with a dealer to keep the public in the dark about the identities of individuals who pay vast sums to the leader’s family member for subjectively priced items of no intrinsic value,” Shaub argued.
He went on to say that if this was “Trump, Xi or Putin,” then nobody in the public would question that it is a vehicle for funneling cash to the first family in exchange for access or favors.
Hunter Biden’s art career remains a scandal to the White House and all of those involved. But it has no meaning when the media outlets control the narrative and use damage control on behalf of the Biden family. Then they carry on like nothing ever happened.
