Republicans appear to have little stomach for actively pursuing investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, if they hold onto their Senate majority in 2021.
The Hill notes that Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who led a joint investigation of Hunter Biden this year, are some of the only voices in the chamber signaling an intention of taking a tough stance against Biden.
Other GOP senators seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach.
One of the reasons for this is that many Senate Republicans want to lower the atmosphere of partisanship and find “common ground” with the opposition party on topics such as infrastructure and trade.
Not surprisingly, billionaire Republican donor Charles Koch, known for his dislike of President Trump and for working with left-wing mega donor George Soros, told the Wall Street Journal that he regrets his decades-long partisanship and now wants to work with a potential Biden administration on “as many issues as possible.”
Despite some Republicans’ desire to settle down and “get along” with the increasingly socialistic Democrats, Grassley and Johnson appear set in their determination to get to the bottom of the Bidens’ suspicious business dealings.
According to The Hill:
Grassley sent a seven-page letter to Attorney General William Barr on Monday asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the business dealings of Hunter and James Biden — Joe Biden’s brother — and whether they require registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Grassley asked for information on whether Hunter or James Biden ever asked for an advisory opinion from the Justice Department about whether they needed to register under FARA.
He also asked for a complete record of prosecutorial memoranda and correspondence between the agency and the Bidens on their FARA obligations or “other criminal activity for which the DOJ and FBI are reviewing their conduct.”
Grassley will be stepping down as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in January because of term limits. He will resume his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Johnson told the outlet that he will continue to investigate the Bidens’ business dealings as the incoming chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He will be stepping down as chairman of the full committee due to term limits.
“I’m not going to turn a blind eye,” he said.
Johnson added that the FBI may conduct its own investigation.
“Tony Bobulinski coming forward, the computer being revealed, the FBI possibly starting an investigation. We had a hard enough time getting what evidence we got to even write a report, and then all of a sudden our report sort of opened up this logjam,” Johnson said in reference to a former business associate of Hunter and James Biden. “I’m very confident there are probably more financial transactions that will probably be revealed.”
Johnson explained that it was after he and Grassley issued a report in September on Hunter Biden’s business dealings that his committee’s investigators were contacted by a computer store owner in Delaware who possessed a copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.
The computer repair man handed the hard drive over to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the New York Post in what became several bombshell posts about Hunter Biden’s drug use, sexual proclivities, and corrupt business activities that implicated his father.
Still, it remains to be seen whether the two Republican senators will be able to muster enthusiasm for a Biden investigation among their colleagues if President Trump is unable to secure a second term through his efforts to expose voter fraud in the 2020 election.
As The New American has noted, Biden goes back a long time with key Senate fixtures such as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has called the former vice president an “old friend.”
“They have negotiated big things before. They’ve come through some very hard and even bitter fights over judicial confirmations,” Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, said of the two in an interview. “But I think they’ve managed to stay friends or have a working, professional relationship even in the hardest of times.”
Considering how unwilling to fight Republicans have continually proven themselves to be, it would not at all be surprising if instead of holding the line against the socialist agenda of a Biden presidency, they become its biggest enablers.
