President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss concerns about potential corruption involving his son Hunter Biden’s art sales when he was pressed about the matter by a reporter over the weekend.
“President Biden, are you concerned about potential corruption with your son’s art sales?” a reporter asked. “Are you concerned about potential corruption with your son’s art sales?”
“You got to be kidding me,” Biden responded as he walked away.
WATCH:
REPORTER: “Are you concerned about potential corruption with your son’s art sales?”
JOE BIDEN: "You got to be kidding me" pic.twitter.com/y1hWghSsx5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 9, 2021
The New York Post reported exclusively this week:
At least five prints of Hunter Biden’s artwork have already been sold for $75,000 each and a team of lawyers is vetting potential patrons who plan to attend his upcoming gallery show in New York City — which has now been delayed until the spring, The Post has learned. The Georges Berges Gallery sold the prints before the Oct. 1 opening of a “pop-up” presentation in Los Angeles, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
It’s unclear who purchased the reproductions — which cost a fraction of the top price of $500,000 for an original piece by President Biden’s scandal-scarred son — or if any more were sold after the LA show opened. … Meanwhile, a leading ethics expert told The Post that Biden’s recent schmoozing with attendees at his debut exhibition showed that a White House attempt to prevent influence-peddling by keeping buyers anonymous won’t work and should be scrapped in favor of a “Plan B.”
“It shows the deal’s not going to be secret,” Richard Painter, a former Bush official, said. “I think the White House needs to go to Plan B.”
Walter Shaub, the former top ethics official for President Barack Obama, has repeatedly slammed the situation involving Hunter Biden selling high-priced art and the way that the Biden administration has responded to corruption concerns.
- June 2021: “I’m sorry, I know some folks don’t like hearing any criticism of him. But this royally sucks. I’m disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a a real ‘f— you’ to us—and government ethics.”
- July 2021: “Imagine you’re a Kremlin official looking for a way to embarrass the U.S., and one day you read that the White House negotiated with a private art dealer to keep secret the names of buyers who pay outrageous sums at an upcoming auction for artwork by the president’s lawyer son. Imagine you’re the White House official who came up with the idea to outsource government ethics management to an art dealer, and you suddenly realize Russian oligarchs like art too. Biden should beg his son to stop this art sale, bringing all the pressure a father can bring to bear on a son. If that fails, he should insist on disclosure of the buyers and commit to publicly releasing all records of any meeting between any government official and any of them. Imagine being a govt official who pipes up at a meeting to say ‘darkness is the best disinfectant.’ Imagine adding ‘let’s outsource secret-keepin’ to someone reputable like an art dealer—and art-buyin’ randos.’ Imagine the chutzpah it takes to sell that mess as an ethics ‘win.'”
- July 2021: “I mean, they have outsourced Government Ethics to an art dealer. She mentioned industry standards. It’s an industry that’s notorious for money laundering. There’s no standards in that industry, and the idea that they’re going to flag any overly priced offers, well this is art that hasn’t even been juried into a community art sale. How is, how are they going to decide what’s unreasonable when they’ve already priced it in the range of $75,000 to $500,000 for a first outing? This is just preposterous and very disappointing.”