House and Senate Republicans responded on Tuesday to Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty to three federal charges, with remarks on the settled plea deal ranging between outrage and vows for investigation to not go impeded.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the announced plea deal wouldn’t have any effect on the lower chamber's investigation into an alleged bribery scheme between President Joe Biden, his son, and a Ukrainian energy executive.
“Now this does nothing to our investigation,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning. “It actually should enhance our investigation because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide [House Oversight Committee] Chairman [James] Comer [R-KY.] with any information that he requires.”
On Tuesday, Hunter pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor offenses related to federal income tax filings. He was also charged with a felony firearm offense which he will avoid prosecution for thanks to him agreeing to enter a pretrial diversion agreement. His plea deal agreement follows a nearly six-year investigation.
Republicans and other critics of the White House have hit out at what they see as a double standard for the president’s family, as compared to former President Donald Trump’s legal troubles.
“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” McCarthy said of Hunter's plea deal with the DOJ. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
“You have a sitting president today that now has a son that gets a sweetheart deal, that now the president today has [his] top political opponent indicted and has potential jail time. And you have the same problem yourself but there’s no movement on that,” McCarthy added. “So I think that to all Americans seems as though it’s a two-system, and that’s what wrong.”
Representative James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, referred to the plea deal as a “slap on the wrist” via Twitter.
“Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery,” alleged Comer in a tweet on Tuesday.
"If Hunter were a Republican, he'd have been in jail years ago," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 US presidential election, in remarks shared on Twitter on Tuesday.
"Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere 'traffic ticket,'" added Trump, who is also running for president, on Truth Social. "Our system is BROKEN!"
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), an outspoken critic of her colleagues across the aisle, referred to the plea deal as a “stunt,” while referring to the DOJ as “pathetic and weaponized.”
“Hunter Biden pleading guilty to a gun charge and misdemeanor tax charges with no jail time is a stunt to make him look like he is just cooperating with the DOJ,” wrote Greene via Twitter.
“Meanwhile the pathetic and weaponized DOJ who protects their puppet President and refuses to prosecute Joe Biden and Hunter for taking bribes from Ukrainian oligarchs and raking in tens of millions of dollars from foreign countries bc the Big Guy makes policy decisions to be help his customers are the real crimes the Biden’s should be charged with!” added the Georgia Representative.
“Oh but hey, look at Jack Smith trying to throw President Trump in jail for 100 years for legally possessing documents he’s allowed to posses under the Presidential Records Act. We are controlled by COMMUNISTS!!”