‘Not a Crime to Make Money Off of Your Last Name’: Chuck Todd Defends Hunter Biden in Fiery Interview with Ron Johnson

Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) sparred with anchor Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday over Republican efforts to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign influence-peddling schemes.

The contentious interview went off the rails as Johnson tried to explain the ongoing investigation into Hunter’s overseas business dealings that he’s spearheading along with fellow Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, prompting Todd to cut in and demand evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

“Senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed?” Todd asked. “Because I’ve yet to see anybody explain. It is not a crime to make money off of your last name.”

The exchange intensified and resulted in Johnson taking aim at mainstream media and calling the interview “a complete smear job against me.”

“Chuck, part of the problem, and this is pretty obvious to anybody watching, is you don’t invite me on to interview me, you invite me on to argue with me. I’m just trying to lay out the facts that certainly Senator Grassley and I uncovered. They were suppressed, they were censored. They interfered in the 2020 election. Conservatives understand that.  Unfortunately, liberals in the media don’t,” Johnson said.

“Senator, look, we’re trying to do issues here and facts. Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want. I understand it’s part of your identity,” Todd shot back.

Johnson went on to blame Todd for dismissing his efforts to look into Hunter when President Biden first took office, accusing the anchor of prematurely writing off the probe as a witch hunt.

“This was started when the mainstream media dropped any pretense of being unbiased and actually chose sides during this election,” Johnson said. “This fire was started when you completely ignored, for example, our investigation of Hunter Biden, ‘You know, no evidence of wrongdoing there,’ and now we find out after the election, ‘You know, there is a fair amount of evidence to the point where we have a real FBI investigation.'”

“Senator!” Todd interjected. “Alright, I’ve had enough of hearing this!”

The FBI opened an investigation last year into Hunter’s shady foreign business dealings and allegedly fraudulent tax practices.

More from National Review

• Matt Taibbi, Douglas Murray Dominate Trust-in-Media Debate

• Matt Taibbi’s Poker Face

• NBC Retracts Report That Exposed New Details in Pelosi-Attack Investigation