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President Joe Biden‘s sister said on Monday that Donald Trump was ‘intent’ on bringing her family down and insisted Hunter Biden is not a problem for the clan, even as he’s facing a rapidly-intensifying federal tax fraud probe.
Valerie Biden Owens, 76, defended her nephew against criticism over his foreign business dealings by insisting there was no ‘”there” there’ since before the 2020 presidential election.
She sat for an interview with CBS Mornings while promoting her new memoir ‘Growing Up Biden.’
Owens, a longtime Joe Biden confidante and his closest political adviser, also told host Gayle King that she believes her 79-year-old big brother was the ‘right person’ to run for president again in 2024 despite his advanced age.
But while standing by him and playing a key role in every one of his campaigns, Owens revealed that the ‘only race’ she had reservations about was his 2020 bid against Trump.
‘The only race that I wasn’t enthusiastic about Joe getting involved in was the 2020 presidency because I expected, and was not disappointed, that it would be ugly and mean,’ Owens said.
‘And it would be an attack on my brother, Joe, personally and professionally, because the former president is very intent on bringing my brother down.’
King pressed, ‘What’s that got to do with Hunter?’
Valerie Biden Owens repeatedly tried to avoid talking about her nephew Hunter Biden’s business dealings during an interview with CBS Mornings about her new memoir
‘Well, I assumed from the beginning that the former president and his entourage would attack my brother by going and attacking family,’ Owens explained.
It comes as Republicans in Washington renew calls to investigate Hunter Biden over his business dealings in Ukraine and China, some of which occurred when his father was Barack Obama’s vice president.
Details of Hunter Biden’s foreign ties were first revealed in October 2020 when the New York Post reported on the contents of a laptop he allegedly left in a Delaware computer shop. It contained a tranche of email correspondences with overseas business partners and raised questions about how much, if any, knowledge and participation the now-president had in the affairs.
Trump and his allies used the laptop to hammer Biden during the 2020 presidential race but the lack of coverage from mainstream media guaranteed the story would have little overall effect on the general voting populace.
The ex-president believed Hunter Biden would be the ‘weakest link’ in his Democratic opponent’s campaign, Owens claimed on Monday.
She attempted to pivot the conversation to her nephew’s well-documented struggle with addiction, praising his ability to ‘walk through hell’ and added that there was no ‘family in this country who hasn’t tasted it or felt’ having a relative battle addiction.
King reminded her that the issue was with Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Those include accusations of lying against both Hunter Biden and his father from former business partners like Tony Bobulinski.
Owens said she was ‘grateful’ Hunter Biden could ‘walk through hell’ with his drug addiction (pictured: Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and Valerie Owens in August 2016)
The laptop, which the New York Times recently authenticated long after right-wing media outlets were blasted for reporting about it, contains compromising and embarrassing images of Hunter Biden
‘There hasn’t been a “there” there since it was mentioned in 2019 or whenever it first was,’ Owens said curtly.
Asked about whether her brother should mount another presidential bid, she answered: ‘Yes. I think my brother is the right person at the right time for all the right reasons.’
The president has made clear that so far he intends to run for a second term, despite concerns from left-wing operatives, progressive groups and even some of his supporters. If he ran and won, he would be 81 years old when taking the oath of office.
‘When you look at a president or any leader, what you look for is temperament, empathy, character, integrity, and accomplishments. And that makes Joe a great leader, and he should continue,’ Owens said.
The details of Hunter Biden’s laptop have found their way into the news cycle again recently after the New York Times and Washington Post both reported on its contents.
Owens is one of her big brother’s closest confidantes and has been involved in every one of his political campaigns
As recently as this time last year, it was dismissed as Russian disinformation despite being authenticated by the New York Post and later DailyMail.com.
GOP lawmakers have accused mainstream media of suppressing the story in an effort to tip the scales against Trump in 2020.
Hunter Biden was asked about the laptop in his own CBS interview from April 2021, where he was promoting his memoir ‘Beautiful Things.’
‘I really don’t know what the answer is. That’s the truthful answer,’ the recovering drug addict said when asked about the contents of the hard drive.
‘Of course’ it could have really been his, he added, despite not remembering leaving it at the Delaware shop.
‘There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. There could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me,’ Hunter Biden said.
Meanwhile, a federal probe into his business dealings has picked up speed in recent weeks.
Prosecutors have gathered information on Hunter Biden’s foreign business ties, including payments from Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
A grand jury has also been hearing from former business associates about his income and other cashflow, the Associated Press reported late last month.
The White House has sought to distance itself from the investigation to avoid the appearance of interfering, maintaining the president has no contact with the Justice Department whatsoever about the case.
A Senate GOP report from 2020 found that Biden himself had done nothing wrong.
Chief of Staff Ron Klain told ABC’s This Week earlier this month that the president is ‘confident’ his son ‘didn’t break the law.’
Source: Daily Mail
