By Tom Ozimek
The latest indictment that brought nine new tax charges against Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, could be part of a “deep state” ploy that serves several aims, including hurting former President Donald Trump’s chances in the 2024 election, according to Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.
A California grand jury on Thursday returned a nine-count indictment against Hunter Biden, charging him with three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses.
The indictment alleges that the president’s son spent millions on a lavish lifestyle and drugs instead of fulfilling roughly $1.4 million in tax obligations.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, called the latest charges politically driven, while Hunter Biden said that his legal troubles are being exploited by his father’s political opponents to damage his presidency.
Mr. Ramaswamy, who is one of the candidates vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has a different take. He believes that the latest indictment serves Democrats in two ways—providing a convenient excuse to replace President Biden as their nominee in 2024 and giving cover for the various prosecutions of President Trump.
“The timing of the Hunter Biden tax indictment is one more sign that the deep state is planning to sideline Biden & pick a new puppet for 2024, all the while using this indictment as a perfect fig leaf to claim that the Trump prosecutions aren’t politically motivated,” Mr. Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X.
“Kills two birds with one stone,” he added.
Speculation Swirls
Mr. Ramaswamy’s remarks come as President Biden’s approval ratings have sunk to a record low, per a new poll from the Wall Street Journal.
They also come amid ongoing speculation that Democrats may be mulling a different candidate than President Biden in the 2024 presidential election given his advanced age—and questions about his mental and physical fitness for the job.
A CNN poll from September shows that roughly two-thirds of Democrat-leaning voters say the Democrat Party should not nominate President Biden for a second term and find somebody more suitable to run for the nation’s top job.
However, the poll also showed that Democrat-leaning voters have little clue who could replace President Biden on the 2024 ticket, given that not a single one of nine possible named candidates in the poll received more than 3 percent support.
According to the poll, 82 percent of Democrats or Democrat-leaning respondents said they want “just someone besides Joe Biden,” with the top two alternate candidates—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—receiving 3 percent support each.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer each got 2 percent support, while Vice President Kamala Harris and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. each received 1 percent.
President Biden himself has suggested he’s not all that convinced he’s up for the demands of a second term—and that the key reason he plans to run is to defeat President Trump.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” President Biden told donors at a recent fundraising event in Boston.
“But we cannot let him win,” he added.
Trump Prosecutions
Not long ago, the notion that a former president—much less the frontrunner by far for the Republican presidential nomination and the incumbent president’s main rival—would face major legal troubles that could land him in jail was almost inconceivable.
Yet that is now the reality confronting President Trump, who faces 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida, and Georgia. If convicted, he could potentially be looking at years in prison.
President Trump has pleaded not guilty and insisted that all the charges are part of a plot to upend his chances at a political victory in 2024.
Republicans, too, have argued that the various investigations against President Trump lack substance and amount to election interference. They have accused President Biden of having “weaponized” the Justice Department to attack his chief political rival.
For his part, President Biden has denied pressuring prosecutors to charge President Trump with crimes.
