Multiple candidates hoping to replace Joe Biden as president in next year's presidential election pulled no punches Friday in response to the indictment of his son, Hunter, a day earlier.
The indictment, which was handed down Thursday by DOJ Special Counsel David Weiss in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, included nine charges alleging a "four-year scheme" when Hunter did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
"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. Kills two birds with one stone," Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X.
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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley also a Republican, agreed in her own X post on the timing of the indictment, describing it as a sign of deeper issues within the DOJ.
"The fact that the Justice Department slow-walked the Hunter Biden case despite serious allegations & nearly gave him a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal a few months ago shows how damaged the Justice Dept. has become. We need to clean it out from top to bottom," she wrote, referencing Hunter's plea agreement on two federal tax charges and a gun charge that fell apart in July.
When asked about the indictment during a press gaggle in Iowa, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he didn't trust the DOJ, and that he was unsure how it ultimately reached the point of the indictment when it did.
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"Obviously, I think Hunter Biden has a lot of problems with criminal liability. I've been saying that for a long time. I wonder whether this is something where they're going to be able to point to and say, see, you can't say that they're going after Trump because they're even going after the president's son, and that is totally apolitical," he said.
He said he expected Biden to eventually pardon Hunter and that the president's son would never "actually face full justice." He added that he was skeptical of the motivations behind the indictment.
Former Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson took a different approach, telling Fox News Digital that Hunter "should be treated like everyone else" accused of a crime.
"We should stand back and let the case proceed without politics overhanging every court appearance. No one should rejoice in the President’s son being indicted, but I am a rule of law champion, and it seems our system of Justice is working even though it was almost derailed by a premature plea agreement that the Court rejected," he said, also referencing Hunter's failed plea agreement mentioned by Haley.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's campaign didn't immediately respond to Fox's request for comment on the indictment, but the Republican candidate did address the allegations of corrupt business dealings by Hunter and Joe Biden during an appearance on a New Hampshire radio show Friday morning.
"The relationship between Hunter and Joe – who knows what we’re going to find out? Is there a financial relationship between the two of them? I think there’s no doubt the father has provided support to the son. There’s no doubt about that," Christie said. "I have no doubt knowing Joe Biden – I’ve known him for 40 years – that he would be supportive of his son’s business ventures."
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Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. declined to comment on Biden's indictment.
Fox reached out to the campaigns of Democrat Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, independent candidate Cornel West, Democrat candidate Marianne Williamson, Biden and former President Donald Trump, and asked about the indictment, but did not immediately receive responses.
Fox has also reached out to the DOJ for comment.
