Hunter Biden and the Mechanics of the “Scandal Industrial Complex”

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The Washington Roundtable: This week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy moved a step closer to calling for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Biden, on the ground that Biden has used the “weaponization of government to benefit his family.” For years, Hunter Biden’s dealings with Ukrainian and Chinese companies have been the focus of Republicans’ efforts to undermine the President, although investigations in the House and Senate have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden in relation to his son’s business dealings. Also this week, the federal judge Maryellen Noreika, in Wilmington, Delaware, put the brakes on Hunter Biden’s plea deal for tax and gun-possession crimes. Hunter Biden is not the first family member of a President to cause political headaches; the brothers of Presidents Nixon, Carter, and Clinton preceded him. What should we make of the latest news about the President’s son? More broadly, how do Oval Office political scandals arise and take hold of the public’s imagination? Hosting this segment are the New Yorker staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos.