Gavin Newsom defends Hunter Biden, says using family to ‘get a little influence’ is ‘hardly unique’

The California governor claimed that such practices were common not only in politics, but throughout the business world, though he did not state whether he believed the first family was guilty of having engaged in influence peddling.

"One of the things that Republicans are relentless on, of course, is Hunter Biden," CNN's Dana Bash said. "There is no evidence that Joe Biden benefited from anything that Hunter was doing, but Republicans have shown that Hunter Biden tried to leverage his father's name, and that the president allegedly before he was president joined phone calls that Hunter Biden's business associates were on. Do you see anything inappropriate there?"

"I don't know enough about the details of that. I mean I've seen a little of that," Newsom replied. "If that's the new criteria, there are a lot of folks in a lot of industries, not just in politics, where people have family members and relationships and they're trying to parlay and get a little influence and benefit in that respect. That's hardly unique."

He suggested that while it would be nice to "see a lot less of that," Republicans' efforts to sus out whether the Bidens had engaged in shady business dealings were overblown.

"An impeachment inquiry?" he said. "This is a perversity that the founding fathers never conceived of and imagined. So, if that’s the best they can do, give me a break. That's about public opinion."

On September 12, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden, arguing that "allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption" warrant further investigation.

McCarthy claimed that Biden "did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings," citing the fact that, "Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners, resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his son’s and son’s business partners."

Biden dismissed the allegations, accusing Republicans of trying to "shut down the government."