President Joe Biden’s critics aren’t buying the politician’s declared 2022 earnings, suggesting the first family’s income of about $579.5k seem dubiously low for someone of his position.
One blogger wrote: "I know what you’re also thinking…what about the 10% to ‘The Big guy’?" referencing the term which popped up repeatedly in documents from the laptop left behind by first son Hunter Biden in a Delaware repair shop in 2019, referring to Hunter’s shady alleged dealings with foreign businessmen.
For his part, Biden tried to play up his humble background in a speech in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, claiming that he “gets” the economic pain being felt by ordinary Americans. Biden recalled that as a single father in the 1970s, he “couldn’t possibly” afford a second home in Washington after becoming a senator from the state of Delaware. “That’s why I commuted every single day for 36 years so I could be home, because I couldn’t sell my home and get reelected without having a home in Delaware. I couldn’t move down here and afford it. But – and I had – but I had a big family. I had help,” he said.
Doubts about the veracity of Biden’s tax returns also swirled on social media, with users joking that the first family seems to have engaged in some “very creative accounting” to account for the millions of dollars made off of alleged ‘pay to play’ deals.
“Tomorrow he and Hunter are doing their Chinese and Ukrainian taxes, they’re expecting a $20 billion refund,” one person quipped. “Where’s the…millions from the kick back scheme from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma after $50 million in US aid went to that company where Hunter worked?” another asked.
“So, why is someone with an adjusted income of $579,514 collecting social security? Where is the $50,0000 a month in rent Hunter Biden supposedly pays in rent?” another person asked, referring to an allegation in a media investigation positing that the $50k in reported rent money could account for the notorious “10% for the Big Guy’” referenced in the laptop emails.
“If Joe Biden doesn’t declare his income from HUNTER and co, then he will be facing tax ramifications as well as money laundering investigations. Go Jim Jordan,” another user quipped, referring to the House Republicans’ efforts to investigate the president’s son’s financial activities.
Hunter Biden’s lost laptop became a major political headache for the Biden family in 2020, when the New York Post began exposing extracts of documents from the computer detailing an array of potentially illegal activities, from alleged pay-to-play schemes involving foreign interests involving his powerful father, to Hunter’s struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, and his penchant for high-priced call girls. The laptop story was censored by media and online before the 2020 election – a decision Facebook and Twitter executives have since admitted was inappropriate.
After the 2022 midterms, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer launched a probe to determine whether Hunter’s business dealings with foreign entities were connected to the president. The committee got access to financial activity reports tied to Biden family businesses last month. The White House has reportedly assembled a team of almost two dozen lawyers and aides to “manage” any House investigations.
The topic of income, taxes and the use of political power for economic gain is an issue that has hounded America’s political elite for decades, with the most acceptable means of making large sums of money revolving around speaking tours and book royalties after a president has left office. For other occupants of the White House, things have been more complicated and murky, with some former presidents and their family members accused of running ‘pay-to-play schemes’ – cash payments in exchange to political access, using insider knowledge to make plays on the stock markets, and other potentially illegal activities.