At least for this week, the only famous individual I know who hated Monday as much as Hunter Biden did is Garfield.
Granted, it’s not for the same reason. Garfield hated Monday because he’s a cartoon cat whose personality traits involve a) hating Mondays, b) loving coffee and c) loving lasagna.
Hunter Biden hated Monday because two separate reports alleged that a) despite numerous denials, his father knew a lot about his business dealings in China and b) his father also unwittingly funded numerous romps with Russian-linked prostitutes. Slightly different factors at play there.
And, as usual, Hunter isn’t helping his cause any. After the Russian escort business was reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday morning, Hunter could only muster a four-word response that was far from a denial:
“What’s wrong with you?” he told the outlet.
Considering Hunter Biden’s well-documented track record of drug addiction, crazed sex and shady business dealings, “what’s wrong with you?” might not be the question he should be asking news outlets.
The Examiner’s report was based on “previously unreported records” the outlet found on a iPhone XS backup on the infamous Hunter Biden laptop. While the backup, dated Feb. 6, 2019, had been inaccessible, a “cyber forensics expert” managed to find the password to the backup during a hard-drive examination, the Examiner reported.
The reports found that Hunter spent more than $30,000 on escorts from UberGFE, which described itself as an “exclusive model agency,” during a period that lasted three-and-a-half months. Many of the “models” that he booked time with had “.ru” email addresses, suggesting they originally hailed from Russia.
“He managed to do so thanks in part to Joe Biden committing to wiring him a total of $100,000 to help pay his bills from December 2018 through January 2019,” the Examiner reported.
Do you sympathize with Joe Biden for having a troubled son?
There’s no indication Joe Biden knew what his son was spending the money on, according to the Examiner. However, in texts between Hunter Biden and his contact with UberGFE — a woman named Eva — Biden said that his bank accounts were temporarily frozen because the Russian email addresses set off fraud alerts.
“This is too much red flag for bank,” a grammatically challenged Hunter Biden texted Eva on Feb. 27, 2019. “Which is reason why I have been unable to take care of this to begin with.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s payments to his son don’t look particularly great, given the timing.
In one case, $5,000 came through while the Examiner reported Hunter was “actively engaged with an UberGFE escort.” (Incredible use of euphemism there.) In another case, he got $20,000 from his father under the pretense of attending a drug rehab in New York City. (He didn’t check in.)
As for the wire that came while Hunter was “actively engaged,” it turns out that payment came hours before Hunter recorded himself having a conflict with a prostitute.
Hunter originally asked Eva to send a prostitute over in the early hours of Jan. 18, 2019. When he later asked if the escort could stay another eight hours, Eva said the final bill would be $9,500 and that Hunter should direct the funds to a woman with a Russian email address, according to the Examiner’s report.
“Less than 90 minutes later, at 6:31 p.m., Hunter Biden received an email informing him that ‘Joseph R Biden Jr.’ had sent him $5,000 through Cash App,” the Examiner reported. “Joe Biden’s then-assistant Richard Ruffner texted Hunter Biden that same minute informing him he ‘was only able to do $5000 because the weekly limit is $7,500.’”
Later, a video on the laptop showed Hunger Biden having a dispute with the prostitute: “Is anything hurt on you? Anything? I was literally saying I’m sorry that it took so long to give you $10,000,” Hunter said on the video.
“Do you have any bruise? Anything? Have I ever touched you in a bad way? Ever? Have I asked you every time if I could touch you? Every time.”
The woman appears to be preoccupied with her phone during much of Hunter’s talking.
“Sweetheart, look at me. You cannot talk to me that way and say things like that. Because I’m more respectful than anyone you’ve ever met. Are you OK?”
The video is below:
The Examiner reported that Hunter sent the video to Eva with a message that said the prostitute could speak no English, which does raise the question of what exactly he thought he was accomplishing with his speech about being “respectful.” (But could explain why she appeared to be ignoring him.)
And Hunter Biden is the one asking the Examiner what’s wrong with them.
There are three reasons why this matters.
First, a September 2020 report by GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin found that “Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries” and that his payments went to where the report said “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”
“There is extensive public reporting concerning Hunter Biden’s alleged involvement with prostitution services. Records on file with the Committees do not directly confirm or refute these individual reports,” the report noted.
“However, they do confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution. Some recipients of those funds are Ukrainian and Russian citizens.”
Second, this doesn’t reflect well on President Joe Biden, either — even if he had no knowledge of what his son was spending the money on, or whether it was going to Russian and Ukrainian citizens.
As former federal prosecutor, author and National Review columnist Andy McCarthy told the Washington Examiner:
“We can all sympathize with Biden’s love for his troubled son while recognizing that he was shoveling prodigious sums of money to Hunter Biden when the neon lights were flashing that Hunter was compromised and using the money to become ever more compromised — and with Russia, of all places.”
And finally, this came out on a day where another one of Joe Biden’s blind spots in regard to his son emerged: A voice mail from Hunter’s cell phone, also found on his laptop, indicated Biden did discuss Hunter’s business dealings in China, contrary to what he’s said in the past.
Voicemail from Joe Biden to Hunter saying he wants to discuss their China business deals. #TenPercentForTheBigGuy pic.twitter.com/bB6VUofSJg
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) June 27, 2022
Joe Biden’s indulgence of his son’s depravity is troubling. His indulgence of his son’s influence-peddling is even worse. But both belong to the genus of problematic behavior.
Whatever Hunter wanted, Hunter got — and the man who enabled that is now the president of the United States.
Rather than asking the Washington Examiner what was wrong with it, perhaps Hunter could have posed the same question to his father — and to himself.
That would take some degree of responsibility and reflectivity, however. Clearly, neither of those are Hunter’s strong suit.
