The latest scandal involving Hunter Biden has angered and exasperated conservative Twitter users, including ex-lawmakers and political commentators, who asked when they can expect Trump Russiagate-style hearings to begin, or recalled that the original Hunter Biden laptop story was branded a ‘conspiracy theory’ and suppressed on social media ahead of the November 2020 election.
On Wednesday, the Daily Mail released video footage of a male individual who looks like the president’s son telling a female sex worker about an incident that happened to him in 2018 when “Russian drug dealers” stole his computer, ostensibly for blackmail purposes, while he was passed out in a pool in Las Vegas during a possible alcohol or drug-induced bender.
In the conversation, the man told the prostitute that the laptop contained compromising videos of him engaging in sexual acts, and that his father was running for president. “They have videos of me doing crazy f***ing sex f***ing, you know,” the man said. Asked whether he was worried about being blackmailed, the man said “yeah.”
“My dad [inaudible] running for president. He is. I talk about it all the time…If they do, he also knows I make like a gazillion dollars.”
The freshly-unearthed video was reportedly filmed in January 2019, and stored on the laptop Biden reportedly left behind in a Delaware computer repair shop. The president’s son has previously stated that he does not remember leaving the computer at the shop while admitting that the laptop could "absolutely" be his.
If the information conveyed to the sex worker in the video is genuine, and the man is indeed Biden, that means that the president’s son may now have lost a minimum of three computers containing sensitive information – the Vegas laptop, the one he left in the Delaware repair shop and a separate laptop reportedly seized by federal agents.
The Biden family’s detractors quickly jumped at the chance to comment on the new scandal.
Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee sarcastically assured Americans over the situation, suggesting that surely the Democratic lawmakers who launched hearings over Donald Trump’s alleged Russian collusion would now seek to investigate video footage of “a naked Hunter Biden claiming RUSSIANS stole his laptop.”
Conservative commentator Nick Adams echoed the sentiment, asking if someone could “please tell Hunter Biden to put his clothes on” and asking his followers to “just imagine how the liberal media would be reacting if that video was featuring Donald Trump Jr and not Hunter Biden.”
Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at conservative newspaper The Federalist, recalled the “violent” suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election.
After the New York Post published its original story on the computer in October, mainstream media largely dismissed it as a conspiracy theory, and social media giants including Facebook and Twitter restricted its circulation.
Liz Wheeler, another political commentator, echoed Hemingway’s sentiments about the Biden laptop story saga’s suppression, asking followers to “remember that time Twitter and Facebook CENSORED Hunter Biden laptop stories before the election claiming it was fake news.”
Commentator Dan O’Donnell took a more humourous take on the latest developments, quipping that “after four long years, I’m so glad we have a First Family with dignity again.”
The fresh Biden laptop allegations trended on Twitter after the Daily Mail story’s publication, with hundreds of thousands of users tweeting about or talking about the report.
President Biden’s supporters did their best to defend the first family amid the latest claims, suggesting that Hunter’s laptop was not important to US national security, or implying that the reporting was more fake news from conservatives.
While the sexually-charged and graphic nature of the fresh Biden laptop claims may be more titillating, they have yet to top the seriousness of the original allegations made against the first family in the original New York Post reporting. The Post's investigation into the Delaware laptop found evidence that the younger Biden may have engaged in selling access to his powerful father while the latter was serving as vice president, with such activities deemed illegal under both federal and state laws.