“Shameful and grifty”: Obama’s ethics chief blasts Hunter Biden for selling art at “obviously inflated prices"
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics under President Obama, blasted Democrat President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, on Monday for selling art he created at exorbitant prices, despite having no history or background in art or selling art.
The artwork by Hunter is reportedly to sell from anywhere between $75,000 and $500,000.
“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,” Shaub told Fox News.
Shaub said that “Hunter Biden’s grotesquely inflated art prices create” a risk of “influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family.”
Shaub added that Hunter Biden’s art dealer, Georges Berges, “should disclose the identity of the purchasers” so the Americans can see who might be trying to “gain access to [the] government.”
“But I also think it’s ridiculous that Hunter Biden is even going forward with this sale as a first-time artist,” Shaub said. “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 continued to slam the questionable sales on Twitter, writing: “It makes perfect sense that a hedge fund manager with no art training who has never sold a piece would seek $500,000 for his doodles, and anyone who thinks the payoff’s based on his relation to POTUS is patently crazy. Why I sold macaroni art for more than that in nursery school.”
It makes perfect sense that a hedge fund manager with no art training who has never sold a piece would seek $500,000 for his doodles, and anyone who thinks the payoff's based on his relation to POTUS is patently crazy. Why I sold macaroni art for more than that in nursery school. pic.twitter.com/24S3Zf4Zbi
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 21, 2021
Shaub further warned that “foreign govts or anyone else” could “funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars anonymously to POTUS’s relatives through subjectively priced commodities like … art.”
Let's let foreign govts or anyone else funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars anonymously to POTUS's relatives through subjectively priced commodities like hotel charges, real estate purchases and art. Oh wait, no, art is COMPLETELY different. (sarcasm) https://t.co/461dmOLDzN
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 21, 2021
Last week, Shaub criticized the Biden administration for its ethics, saying that Biden was a “f***ing failure,” in a response to a report in the Washington Post about how numerous top Biden aides have secured “coveted jobs” in the Biden administration for family members.
Pathetic! The responses from people who spent 4 years complaining the other side was putting party over country are pathetic. They sound just like MAGAs. The jobs went to privileged kiddos with mommies & daddies who cozied up to POTUS. Nepotism is illegal. https://t.co/LumH4uSzSt
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) June 18, 2021
“I’m sorry, I know some folks don’t like hearing any criticism of him. But this royally sucks,” Shaub said. “I’m disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a a real ‘f— you’ to us—and government ethics.”
“Pathetic!” Shaub continued. “The responses from people who spent 4 years complaining the other side was putting party over country are pathetic. They sound just like MAGAs. The jobs went to privileged kiddos with mommies & daddies who cozied up to POTUS. Nepotism is illegal.”
“EVEN THE F-ING HEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL PERSONNEL, WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING THEM HONEST, HAS A CHILD WHO’S A RECENT COLLEGE GRAD WORKING IN THE ADMINISTRATION,” Shaub raged. “AND THE SPOUSE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. This is ridiculous. What a f—ing failure.”
“When little problems like this, which are so damn easy to avoid, crop up, it’s a sign of much bigger rot. Because if you can’t even do the easy things, you sure as hell can’t do the hard things,” he continued. “The White House’s defense that they had the minimum qualifications is total BS. The issue isn’t whether they were qualified (some weren’t). It’s that a WH that promised diversity is giving these privileged white kids with connected mommies and daddies prime jobs over others!”
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