Obama Ethics Chief Calls On Joe Biden To Shut Down Hunter’s New Grift: “This smells like an attempt to cash in on a family connection to the White House”
Former President Barack Obama’s ethics chief ripped President Biden’s son, Hunter, and the lackeys in the White House for the ‘shameful and grifty feel’ of Hunter’s new art career. Hunter is now selling or trying to sell his art for prices up to half a million dollars and would believe the buyers are anonymous?
Imagine if a Trump… Walter Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director under Obama went on Fox News and held nothing back at this scandalous behavior by Hunter and Joe and Joe’s White House lackeys:
Shaub said: “The notion of a president’s son capitalizing on that relationship by selling art at obviously inflated prices and keeping the public in the dark about who’s funneling money to him has a shameful and grifty feel to it.
“Just as hotel charges and real estate purchases created a risk of unknown parties funneling money to the Trump family for potentially unsavory purposes, Hunter Biden’s grotesquely inflated art prices create a similar risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family.
“I also think it’s ridiculous that Hunter Biden is even going forward with this sale as a first-time artist.
“He can’t possibly think anyone is paying him based on the quality of the art.
“This smells like an attempt to cash in on a family connection to the White House.
“At a minimum, the president should be asking his son not to go through with this auction.
Shaub said Hunter Biden and his art dealer, Georges Berges must at least tell the public who the buyers are saying they “should disclose the identity of the purchasers” so the public can see if anyone is trying to “gain access to the government.”
He added that the “public should not have to take it on blind faith that government officials will behave.”
From Fox Business:
President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has taken a turn into artistry and the first paintings he’s selling are going for as high as $500,000.
The first son’s first foray into the art world has seen his pieces picked up by art dealer Georges Berges, who has priced the younger Biden’s artwork between $75,000 and $500,000 depending on the size and scope of the collage artwork.
That’s a pretty big haul when compared to other artists’ first sales. In fact, Biden’s pieces are worth more off the bat than a piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat that sold for $20,900 in 1984 – $53,770.96 in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation.
“I don’t paint from emotion or feeling, which I think are both very ephemeral,” Biden told artnet on Monday. “For me, painting is much more about kind of trying to bring forth what is, I think, the universal truth.”
Biden’s dealer Berges – who represents Sylvester Stallone and was reportedly arrested in California for assault with a deadly weapon and terrorist threats – plans to promote the art through a private viewing in Los Angeles and an exhibition in New York in the fall later this year.
Berges said Biden’s art has “authenticity,” comparing it to works made by legendary artists Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon.
“It has that authenticity that I see in a lot of artists that I personally love, be it Freud or Bacon,” he said. “A lot of the issues that are thrown at Hunter is what makes him produce really great work.”