Time to 'Man Up': Don Jr. Challenges Hunter Biden to a Debate
Now, this is laying down the gauntlet.
Donald Trump Jr., eldest son of President Donald Trump, issued a challenge in an interview that aired Sunday proposing a debate with Hunter Biden, the surviving son of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden.
And he wants it all out on the table.
In an “Axios on HBO” interview with Jim VandeHei, CEO of the news website Axios, Trump Jr. pointed out the essential double standard his father and family have faced since Trump Sr. entered national politics, and made it clear he saw a difference between his own life and Hunter Biden’s.
Trump, 42, comes from a family that was famous for his father — and exceedingly wealthy — long before the 2016 election.
Hunter Biden, 50, has done very well for himself thanks to his father’s role as vice president in the Obama administration. Now, his good fortune — particularly with the Ukraine energy company Burisma — is raising uncomfortable questions for his father’s campaign.
“I was an international businessperson before my father got into politics,” Trump told VandeHei. “That’s what we did. I’m not gonna say I haven’t benefited from my father’s last name, just like Hunter Biden did. It would be foolish to say that. But, I haven’t benefited from my father’s taxpayer-funded office.”
And that’s the key.
“Hunter Biden, his father becomes VP, all of a sudden he goes over to Ukraine and he’s making 83 grand a month,” Trump said. “We stopped doing any new international business deals when my father won the presidency.”
Just to make sure no one missed the point, Trump made the challenge explicit in a Twitter post.
The MSM loves making a false equivalency between us, so lets settle it:
I challenge Hunter Biden to man up & debate me@JimVandeHei moderates. Hunter releases his tax returns & I release mine. Let’s have an open convo about who really profited from their father’s public office! pic.twitter.com/6N6MObhGhb
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 8, 2020
“The MSM loves making a false equivalency between us, so lets settle it,” Trump Jr. wrote.
“I challenge Hunter Biden to man up & debate me.
“@JimVandeHei moderates. Hunter releases his tax returns & I release mine. Let’s have an open convo about who really profited from their father’s public office!”
In response, the Biden campaign didn’t sound eager to see the matchup but couched its response in typical juvenile snark.
“It is hard to believe anything a Trump says on tax returns when Donald Sr. has lied for years about releasing his,” Biden campaign press secretary T.J. Ducklo told Axios.
As can be expected of anything Trump-related, the tweet from Donald Trump Jr. was flooded with responses full of carping liberals attacking him, the president and the Trump family.
But what was noticeably missing as of Monday morning was a full-throated response from the Biden camp taking up the challenge. (Maybe Hunter is busy polishing off another one of those pieces of art The New York Times loves so much.)
Trump Jr. has already shown that he’s not afraid to face liberals on their own terms. In the Axios interview, he proved he’s not afraid to throw down the gauntlet again.
Another son, from another prominent American political family, might not be willing to pick it up, though.
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