Rand Paul: Going after Trump's kids is dangerous, but Biden's son is fair game

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Tuesday that if Congress was intent on investigating Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, it should also investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

When asked whether Trump’s children should be held to the same standard, however, Paul demurred, ranting about the criminalization of politicians and their families.

Paul was speaking with MSNBC about the latest revelations that Giuliani had reportedly been engaging in shadow diplomacy while allegedly taking money from the firm of two Ukrainian-born businessmen who were recently indicted.

Giuliani has been accused of working with Trump to push Ukraine to investigate the Bidens over a series of baseless corruption allegations. Trump has claimed that request was above board and focused on rooting out corruption more broadly in Ukraine.

“If we want to investigate Rudy Giuliani’s financial dealings, by all means do it,” Paul said Tuesday. “But at the same time, you should, if you want to be fair, investigate Hunter Biden’s economic dealings in the Ukraine as well.”

Pressed on whether the same standard should then apply to Trump’s family — including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both presidential advisers — Paul dodged.

“If we want to go down the road of the politics of self-destruction of everybody, criminalize all politicians on both sides of the aisle and go after their family, yes we can do that,” he said. “But both sides are doing that. Nobody really should excuse themselves, say we’re holier than thou and Trump is evil.”

Instead, he suggested that both sides should be treated equally. “If we want to go down that route, and we want to criminalize politics, we can do it, but I think in the end the American people are gonna say, ‘Well, shouldn’t we do it fairly?'”

Paul’s “both sides” rhetoric makes little sense in this case.

Congress is investigating serious allegations of wrongdoing by the current president and his administration. If they find substantial evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors, Trump could be impeached.

Meanwhile Hunter Biden holds no public office nor any unofficial de facto role in the administration, and his father has not held public office in nearly three years.

Additionally, Trump’s claims about the Bidens — that the former vice president worked to oust Ukraine’s prosecutor general over an investigation into a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden was a member — have largely been debunked. There is no evidence to support the claim that Vice President Biden intervened in that case to his son’s benefit, and the investigation Trump has cited was in fact dormant by the time Biden and members of Congress called for the prosecutor’s ouster.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.