‘A step toward accountability’: KY Republicans react to Hunter Biden guilty verdict

Kentucky Republicans offered a wide range of reactions to Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict for lying about drug use when he purchased a handgun six years ago.

Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee who has doggedly pursued an investigation of President Joe Biden and his son, heralded the outcome as a “step toward accountability.”

But Rep. Thomas Massie, the Northern Kentucky contrarian libertarian who often parts with Republican orthodoxy, declared the punishment of the president’s son unworthy of the crime.

“Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it,” Massie posted on social media. “There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws.”

Then there was Lexington Rep. Andy Barr, who simply expressed bemusement at the timing of the verdict, while avoiding a substantive judgment on it one way or the other.

“It is truly ironic that Joe Biden is talking gun control right after his son’s federal conviction for ... gun charges,” Barr posted on X. “Americans deserve better!”

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A jury in Delaware found that when Biden bought a revolver in October 2018 he lied on a federal form by checking a box to say he was drug free.

Hunter Biden has long battled addiction and prosecutors presented evidence that he purchased drugs around the time he bought the weapon from a gun shot.

Even as Comer nodded toward the accountability of the justice system, he said the Justice Department should still pursue an investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling overseas.

Thus far, Comer and Republican investigators have failed to provide any concrete evidence that the president broke any laws.

Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict comes just 12 days following Trump’s guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a New York City hush money case.