Joe Biden's sister and political campaign manager, Valerie Biden Owens, has defended the president's son's behaviour that sparked controversies over the alleged use of his father's name and purported shady deals with a Chinese businessman in an interview with USA Today. Owens stressed that Hunter Biden bears no responsibility for the alleged actions and quickly switched to his "courage" and "strength" in fighting a crack cocaine and alcohol addiction.
"Hunter walked through hell. He didn't wake up and say, 'Aunt Val, I think I'm going to be an addict. And so whatever happens, it's my responsibility", Owens said.
POTUS' sister went on to lash out at Trump followers for whipping up stories about the alleged misconduct of Hunter Biden, purportedly underreported by the mass media. She argued that the sole goal of this campaign against Hunter was to "bring Joe down".
She also suggested that the Biden family has already gone through worse in their lives and is unlikely to hit something bigger than losing Joe Biden's son Beau at 46 to glioblastoma or watching Hunter Biden walk through the "hell" of addiction.
"You never say the worst is over, but whatever comes, we can handle it as a family", Owens said.
Calls for Probe Into Biden Family
Her commentary comes as Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) are calling for an all-out investigation by the US Senate into the dealings of the Biden family, and specifically the joint business venture with the now-bankrupt energy giant CEFC, whose former CEO, Ye Jianming, reportedly had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The two senators dismissed the "Russian disinformation" pretext used by the mainstream media in 2020, when the story about Hunter's dealings first broke, to deny coverage to the story. The GOP lawmakers argued that "hard facts backed up by bank records" prove that the transactions took place between Hunter Biden and the company with alleged tied to Beijing.
"Hunter Biden and James Biden [Joe Biden's brother] received millions of dollars from companies connected to the communist Chinese regime. But, frankly, it's worse than that. These companies were effectively an arm of the Chinese government", Senator Ron Johnson said.
Hunter Biden is already under a federal investigation over alleged violations of the tax code and suspected money laundering. Few details are known about the probe, with several media reports claiming they are related to Hunter Biden's foreign business ventures.
The latter were exposed in several publications after the New York Post in September 2020 started to print extracts from the hard drive of a laptop, better known as the "laptop from hell", which had allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. The latter reportedly dropped the laptop off at a repair shop in Delaware, but never recovered it. The shop's owner eventually handed over the drive's content to authorities and Donald Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who later referred it to the press.
The laptop's contents, which the mainstream media started to independently verify and publish almost two years later, suggested that Hunter used his father's high position as US vice president for the benefit of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, where he was a member of the executive board. Hunter also held a share in a joint venture with China's CEFC for a person known as the "big guy", which allegedly stands for US President Joe Biden (although it has never been confirmed).