Dem
51
GOP
49
It could explode in the Republicans' faces, that is. House Republicans are hell-bent on making the investigation of Hunter Biden's laptop the biggest e-news story since Hillary's e-mail server. But this story may get far less traction than Hillary's server. At the time, Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and had access to classified information. As everyone (except two or three people we don't have space to name here) knows, classified documents must be handled with extraordinary care. Hunter Biden is, and always was, a private citizen and never had access to any classified information. His laptop is not going to contain any government secrets.
Nevertheless, Republicans are going to make the investigation of it the centerpiece of the 118th Congress. They are going to spend endless hours grilling everyone who has ever been within 10 feet of it. They see this as the path to the trifecta in 2024. The only problem is that the voters don't see it this way. In fact, they see the investigation of it as a waste of time and money. In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 65% of American adults think the Republicans are concentrating too much on investigating the Biden administration (and Hunter is not even a member of it). A CNN poll shows that 73% of American adults think the House Republicans aren't paying enough attention to the country's problems. And this is before the investigations start. Just wait until they take over the news cycle. If Joe Biden's campaign is all about the 5+ million jobs created on his watch and the new massive semiconductor manufacturing plants being built in Ohio and Arizona and the Republicans are touting all the dick pix they found on Hunter's laptop, the voters might decide they like the former better than the latter.
Democrats are going to be proposing all kinds of solutions to the country's many problems, only to have Republicans bat them down. Nothing will get done in Congress this year or next. In 2024, the voters will get to assign the blame. But even before the investigations really get going, the public has decided the Republicans are wasting everyone's time. That is only going to get worse when it actually happens. Maybe there is something explosive on the laptop, but mostly likely it will show that young Biden has not lived a perfect life but probably hasn't committed any crimes. And it is virtually certain to fail to turn up any evidence that Joe Biden committed any crimes. Maybe he introduced his son to some important people, but probably not more than that. If junior collected some money from them but didn't actually do much in return, all that shows is that grift is bipartisan. And is taking the Chinese for suckers such a bad thing? We'll keep an eye on this story although probably most people will tune it out on Day 2.