One thing that comes up over and over again is Hunter Biden, who was hired by the Ukranian oil and gas company, Burisma, to sit on their board of directors, even though he didn't even speak Ukranian. He was paid a $600,000 per year salary to do this, or about 80% above and beyond what a normal executive salary typically is. So he was over-compensated, but not ridiculously so, or at least, not for an oil and gas company.
Would Hunter have been hired had he not been the son of then Vice President Joe Biden? Probably not. But this form of graft has very little influence over lawmakers, even though it's done all the time. I thought I'd share some of my research on other examples where politicians' relatives got a job they probably wouldn't have gotten were it not for their political connections. (You might find this interesting.)
There are lots of high-profile examples. George W. Bush was made an oil executive through this father's connections, and was remarkably bad at it. His brother, Neil Bush, probably wouldn't have been on the board of Silverado Savings and Loan in the 1980's were it not for the fact that George H.W. Bush was Vice President at the time, and that came back to bite him in 1988 when the Savings & Loan scandal exploded. George W. Bush's daughter, Barbara Bush, was given a job at Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, possibly due to her high connections (although having a degree from Yale didn't hurt). And, of course, Chelsea Clinton was handed any number of jobs thanks to her status as the Fist Daughter, including a largely symbolic role as a "special correspondent" for NBC News. She took on her current role as board member of the Clinton Foundation when all those jobs washed out for her. And let's not forget that her mother, Hillary Clinton, made history by becoming one of the first ever female corporate executives by getting named to the board of Walmart - but, of course, that only happened because her husband, Bill, was the governor of Arkansas at the time. (Walmart is headquartered in Arkansas.)
There's little doubt that the only reason Megan McCain got on "The View" was because she's John McCain's daughter. There's also little doubt that the status of New York Mayor, Andrew Cuomo, has helped to bolster the career of his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, on CNN, and that both their careers were assisted by their father, Mario Cuomo. Just about every job Rand Paul ever had before running for office himself came through his father, Ron Paul. Mike Reagan, the adopted son of former president Ronald Reagan, was made a talk radio show host due largely to his family connections.
It was once falsely reported that Nancy Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., was on the board of a Ukranian-influenced energy company, similar to Hunter Biden. That story turned out to be false. But he was appointed to the board of an energy company in America called Viscoil. Paul left the board in 2010. But it's a good bet that he got on the board in the first place, in part, because his mother was Speaker of the House. (It was long afterward that Viscoil dissolved, re-formed itself in Singapore, and only then did some limited lab-based business with Ukranian interests.)
Everyone remembers JFK. Few people remember that when he named his brother, Bobby Kennedy, Attorney General, people shouted, "Nepotism!" They claimed that RFK was too young, and too inexperienced. Of course, they made the same argument about JFK, too.
Sometimes the assist goes the other way, with a career boost coming by outright opposition to a political relative. For example, Caroline Rose Giuliani received a huge career boost by standing opposed to her father, Rudy Giuliani, and endorsing the Biden/Harris ticket. Caroline is a filmmaker. Mitch McConnell's daughter, Porter McConnell, has built her career on liberal activism in opposition to her Senate-Majority-Leading father. Or George Conway, the husband of Trump staffer Kellyanne Conway, receiving a huge career assist in founding The Lincoln Project thanks to his notorious marital connection, and his outspoken opposition to Trump in spite of it.
Here in Wisconsin, former governor Scott Walker's son, Alexander Walker, was handed a job as an account representative at Uline while he was in between his roles as a campaign director and later at Turning Point USA in 2019. His role at Uline only lasted 3 months, February through April, according to his LinkedIn page, and Dick and Liz Uihlein, the owners of Uline, are notoriously outspoken Republicans who loudly supported Scott Walker, and later Donald Trump.
Senator Ron Johnson's children were bailed out of investment difficulty when they invested in a historic building in Oshkosh, yet filed the paperwork incorrectly when seeking a tax break to offset their renovation costs. Anybody else probably would have been told, 'Tough luck!' Or, at least, tough luck for this fiscal year. But Johnson's children got the tax break anyway after a series of emails told Wisconsin officials whose kids they were dealing with. (Okay, that's a small item, but it counts.)
And let's not forget how Governor Tommy Thompson's brother, Ed Thompson, got in trouble with the law regarding marijuana possession. His big brother got him out of that jam. And later, Ed Thompson ran for governor himself on the Libertarian ticket. His platform? Legalize marijuana!
Full disclosure: I have to include my own family in this one. My wife landed an internship with the Senatorial campaign of Russ Feingold when she dropped the name of her grandfather - State Senator Joseph Andrea of Kenosha. She was hired without an interview.
Look, it's not wrong to have connections. It's not wrong to exploit them. Often times, it's who you know, not how good you are. But let's not pretend that those connections necessarily mean that those you are connected to are corrupt.
Yes, Hunter got paid $600,000 per year. Yes, that's sketchy as shit. But unless someone can show evidence that one single penny of it went to his father, Joe, it doesn't mean jack.
Especially when Hunter's biggest critics are Eric Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka - and one doesn't need to look far to see how they have financially benefited through their political connections!
Eric
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