On Wednesday, Joe Biden's son, Hunter, admitted learning "that the US attorney's office in Delaware had advised" his legal counsel that they were investigating his tax affairs.
Yet, this was known long before last month's presidential election, said Fox News host Tucker Carlson, opening the latest edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight", and adding his programme had already covered a criminal probe launched into Hunter's business dealings with China in the run-up to the vote. The latter can't be said about other media outlets, which have maintained a wall of silence on the matter so as not to hurt Joe Biden's chances of winning the election, Carlson went on.
As for the Justice Department, the initiator of the probe, it refused to dwell on it for fear of being accused of political meddling, thereby leaving Americans completely in the dark about the actual state of affairs.
"All they knew was that Joe Biden had dismissed the entire thing as a Russian plot and that large numbers of senior officials in the so-called intelligence community agreed with that assessment", the journalist fumed citing Biden's exact words on 22 October as the sum total of data allowed to be conveyed to Biden's electorate.
"Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he's accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics - four, five former heads of the CIA [from] both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani", Biden said at the time.
Bringing up the subject of foreign intereference, the host believes it is no longer a priority for the Democrats, because "it's now clear to everyone, whether they're willing to admit it or not, that the real threat to this country is not Russia and hasn't been for the past 30 years".
"The real threat we face as a country is from the communist government of China, which - and everyone knows this too - has long been in bed with our Democratic elites. In some cases, literally in bed", Carlson stated, referring to congressman Eric Swalwell as "you lying creep". The latter was recently reported to have been targeted by a suspected Chinese intelligence operative as part of a broader effort to set up ties with US politicians – something Swalwell said he was "shocked" about, asserting he wasted no time offering to cooperate with federal investigators.
Following Hunter Biden's confirmation of the ongoing investigation, the Biden-Harris transition team weighed in saying the projected president-elect was "deeply proud of his son". A statement from the team said Hunter had "fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger".
Regarding the message, Carlson noted that it is still unclear why Joe Biden is so "gosh darn proud of Hunter", assuming federal investigations could well be a rite of passage among the Bidens.
"We can be pretty sure that Joe Biden didn't want to issue the statement in the first place. Why would he? Who would want to issue it? If he was pushed to issue the statement, then by whom and for what purpose was he pushed? We don't know the answer to that", Carlson speculated, alleging there are powerful forces within the Democratic Party that do not like the projected incoming president as he is "too male and too white and too wedded to politics as it used to be".
The host said Fox News had confirmation that the said probe is not related to Hunter's former drug addiction issues, but is rather based on "suspicious activity reports on foreign transactions", which started making the rounds prior to the vote but were suppressed for them not to be deemed as a means of political interference.
Yet, Carlson alleges that silencing information is already about swinging the vote:
"Again, if you're looking for election rigging, look no further. That's what this is. They kept information from the public in order to influence the outcome of the election. They rigged it", he said.
Following his confirmation of the investigation, Hunter Biden said he was taking the matter "very seriously" and was "confident" he had handled his affairs "legally and appropriately". As per a government source cited by Fox News, Hunter Biden is a subject/target of a grand jury investigation.
According to the source, a "target" means that there is a "high probability that a person committed a crime", while a "subject" is someone you "don't know for sure" has committed a crime. The probe comes as his father assembles his cabinet following Donald Trump's instructions for White House officials to prep for the upcoming transition of power, despite the ongoing process by GOP officials to challenge the outcome of the election in the court system.
Hunter, 50, was a frequent target of Republican criticism during the 2020 election campaign, focusing on his business dealings in Ukraine and China when Joe Biden was vice president under Barack Obama.
Last December, President Donald Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the former vice president's family. Mr Trump was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Republican-held Senate in February.