A majority of voters in the United States believe that the media has deliberately ignored the story about alleged questionable overseas dealings of President-elect Joe Biden's son, Hunter, to help his father win the 3 November presidential race against incumbent President Donald Trump, according to a survey conducted by US polling company Rasmussen Reports.
Fifty-two percent, out of a 1,000 poll participants, said that they believe Hunter’s investigation story was hidden intentionally by the media to favour Biden’s presidential bid, while 32% of the study's participants think that the story might have been ignored by media outlets because they felt was a “partisan hit job”. Moreover, about 17% said they were unsure.
In response to one of the survey questions about whether they believe the president-elect “was consulted about and perhaps profited from his son Hunter's overseas business deals”, 56% of those participating in the poll said it was “likely”, including 43% saying it was “very likely”.
In the meanwhile, 38% said it’s “not very likely” President-elect Biden was consulted about or benefited from his second son’s dealings. Twenty-two percent of those answering the questions said that was “not at all likely”.
About 70% of the poll respondents said they were “closely” following the news about Hunter Biden’s dealings, including 38% who have been following “very closely”. Seventy-six percent of this focus group is convinced the Hunter Biden story was deliberately ignored by the media before Election Day and 72% believe the elder Biden was aware of his son’s dealings and perhaps profited from them.
Conducted between 13 and 14 December, the poll also suggested that 78% of Republicans participating, who have been following the Hunter Biden story more than anyone else, believe the story was hidden by news organisations until the election is over to help Biden defeat Trump. Thirty-two percent of the Democratic poll respondents shared the same point of view, along with 46% of voters not affiliated with either of the two US major political parties.
On 9 December, President-elect Biden’s son, Hunter, said that he learned that the US Attorney's Office in Delaware would investigate his tax affairs. According to CNN, investigators are probing multiple financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden violated any tax and money laundering laws in his overseas business deals, principally in China.
Allegations of Hunter Biden's Shady Financial Ties to Foreign Business
Two weeks ahead of the 3 November presidential election in the US, Hunter Biden again came into the limelight after the New York Post uncovered what it claimed were "damning" emails from a laptop alleged to have belonged to the then-presidential candidate's son. Emails said to have been found on this laptop suggested, according to the allegations, that Hunter Biden may have facilitated for executives on the board of Ukrainian energy company, where he had a seat, to meet with his father back when the latter was Vice President.
The purported files recovered from the alleged laptop also were said to reveal that Hunter Biden engaged in questionable dealings with businesses in Beijing.
The story of the purported Hunter Biden emails found weak coverage by the US media. Twitter and Facebook initially blocked users from sharing the allegations on social platforms for violating their “Hacked Materials Policy”. Twitter not only prevented users from sharing a link to the story but also locked the New York Post out of its Twitter account and did the same to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who also shared the article containing the allegations. However, the two platforms later allowed sharing the controversial allegations regarding the story of Hunter Biden's hacked emails.
Most US media organisations did not cover the story until the election was over, according to Rasmussen Reports.
