Washington Secrets: What's Hunter Biden up to?

WASHINGTON SECRETS

BY ROB CRILLY

Welcome to Wednesday’s Washington Secrets. No, we don’t know what last night’s election results mean either. Today, we focus on Hunter Biden and his media blitz. If you are wondering what his strategy is, well, he said it all out loud to Tucker Carlson. Plus, we have polling that suggests Republicans are going to have to work harder to turn voters off the socialists …

What’s going on with Hunter Biden? In the past three months, he has become a prolific social media poster and a ubiquitous presence on podcasts — the sort of podcasts where Democrats fear to tread.

This week, it was Tucker Carlson. Sitting beneath the broadcaster’s antler chandelier, they bonded over the idea that people should be free to condemn Israel’s government without being labeled an antisemite, shared their feelings about being hammered in the pages of the New York Post, and agreed that Donald Trump was “one of the most transformational individuals in our political history,” if not exactly for positive reasons.

The result has been a slew of headlines asking what’s up with Hunter. What does he want? What is he doing?

It all marks a profound change from the 2020 election campaign when Trump used a “Where’s Hunter?” line to turn focus on his challenger’s low-profile son, while he was battling drug addiction.

Then came the “laptop from hell” and assorted legal battles that kept Hunter’s name in the headlines even as he tried to stay out of range of photographers.

He manages to laugh about all of that now. When Carlson says that, for all the criticism he is getting for breaking with Trump, no one would ever want to see naked pictures of him, Biden gives a wry chuckle.

“Well, I didn’t think so either, but apparently they do,” he says.

In other interviews, he has rounded on Democrats he believed contributed to his father’s downfall.

HUNTER BIDEN ADMITS PARDON WAS ‘NOT GOOD’ FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

And through it all, he has been candid about his struggles with addiction, his legal battles, and the embarrassment of having naked pictures banded across tabloids on an almost daily basis.

He even admits the folly of taking a job with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma when his father was vice president.

“It was a stupid thing to do, you know, because I wasn’t fully aware of what a swamp it was and the narrative that would be able to be spun,” he says.

PR experts will tell you that this is a classic comeback strategy. Get everything out of the way, tackle the difficult topics that most people hide, and reclaim your own narrative.

“The only way out was through — owning the things that were true and speaking truth to the things that were false,” he tells Carlson when discussing his motivations.

So what is he coming back for? Not politics, he claims, despite spending much of the podcast discussing the trouble with social media, the power of cryptocurrency, and the problems of our polarized society.

“I’m not running for anything. You gave me a platform. I’m going to use it, and not only am I going to use it to benefit myself and my family, but hopefully benefit people along the way,” he says, describing how he hopes to connect with a million people affected by addiction.

What helped save him, he continues, was realizing that he wasn’t alone.

“I want to write about it, and I’m going to put it on Substack, and part of it’s free, and part of it’s subscription, and I want to continue to practice my art, and ultimately, at the end of the day, is that like anybody else … I want to have the financial security to be able to not constantly feel as if I have to make choices that I don’t want to have to make.”

How close is he to financial security? A million miles away, he admits. “Several million miles away,” he continues.

“I don’t know exactly what it is. I think it’s between four and six million,” that he owes his lawyers.

For all the speculation about his strategy and rehabilitation and what comes next, the answer was in clear sight at the end of Biden’s two-hour chat with Carlson.

He is leveraging his experiences to sell his art and his writing as he tries to find financial security.

He is doing what Bidens always do: working out how he can turn the past few years into a few bucks.

Poll: Socialists are more popular than MAGA Republicans

What to make of last night’s primaries? Progressives and socialists are on the rise! Except where they’re not!

Expect pundits and strategists to see what they want and put forth evidence that backs up their long-standing views.

Against that confusing backdrop, interesting polling data reaches Secrets from our friends at John Zogby Strategies. They gamed out hypothetical matchups to see how a “Democratic Socialist” might fare in a 2028 presidential race. The results may reveal interesting lessons for Republicans as they work out how to take on this leftist populist movement.

When 1,000 likely voters were asked which generic candidate they would prefer in each of four matchups if the election were tomorrow, the results were as follows:

Democratic Socialist – 45%
MAGA Republican – 33%

Establishment Democrat – 50%
MAGA Republican – 32%

Democratic Socialist – 42%
Establishment Republican – 39%

Establishment Democrat – 46%
Establishment Republican – 37%

It suggests that vilifying Democratic Socialists, comparing them with the abuses of 20th-century Communists, for example, may not be as easy as Republicans think.

Jeremy Zogby told Secrets: “History teaches us two things about Socialism, one, it never works. Two, it thrives when the average voter feels their slice of the pie is shrinking.”

“That means the only way to stop its proliferation is to stay ahead of it.”

Zogby also suggested keeping an eye on one voting bloc in particular: parents with young children.

“Because they’re fighting a two-front war – one in the present and another in the future,” he said. “While they approve of Trump’s job [performance] 51% to 47%, our 2028 generic series reveals this group could be a toss-up.”

You can hear discussion of the results on their website here.

Lunchtime reading

Cracker Barrel’s CEO was plotting a turnaround—but opened the door to her own exit: Julie Masino was the face of the company’s culture-war-fuelled controversy, and eventually tired of battling critics.

Trump administration set to spend at least $900 million on White House construction: Instead of securing money directly from Congress, the records show, the administration has pieced together funding from other agencies and private donors and directed it to a little-known account that typically holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the executive mansion.

You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at secrets@washingtonexaminer.com with your comments, story tips, and suggestions. If a friend sent you this and you’d like to sign up, click here.