# Hunter Biden Laptop Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 22, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587 "2020-10-22T11:17:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/344 "2020-10-29T01:17:26Z")
We know what Putin’s motives are for US elections. I don’t see what his view could possibly add here, and I don’t think we ought to help him in his aims by paying those views attention. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/345 "2020-10-29T01:37:29Z")
Release The Memo! > **[Release the Memo: What's the Conspiracy Behind the Right-Wing Meme?](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/release-the-memo-whats-the-conspiracy-behind-the-right-wing-meme-120321/)** > > Republicans claim a secret document reveals a Hillary Clinton plot “worse than Watergate” – and they’re getting a big boost from Russian bots ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/346 "2020-10-29T01:45:14Z")
> [@Hands](#): > > the point is: Biden says that he never discussed any of Hunters business with him. Some people say that he is lying because it just isn’t plausible given what we know. So ownership of the laptop is just a detail in getting to the bottom of the allegations. The important thing is the info on the laptop. The media is doing their best to ignore that info because it is in their interest to do so. You have yet to deny your role in multiple bank robberies. Why won’t you deny these allegations! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/347 "2020-10-29T01:53:51Z")
There is literally no conspiracy theory stupid enough that modern Republicans won’t mainline it directly into their dick-veins. Yes, literally. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/348 "2020-10-29T01:54:35Z")
Incriminating Joe Biden in WHAT EXACTLY!?!? I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what crime Joe Biden supposedly might have committed by discussing a business deal in China with his son in 2017. I am truly at a loss with this whole saga. The right has gone so far off the deep end of reality that it no longer matters that there is no crime, or unethical behavior, even alleged here. It’s enough for them to simply say Hunter! Investigation! China! Emails! FBI! JOE BIDEN!!! over and over again until they’re all satisfied that he’s a crook. They’ve repeated it so many times at this point that even they no longer have any idea what they’re saying. Pat yourselves on the back, right wing nutjobs, you’ve done it again. Lock him up, boys. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/349 "2020-10-29T01:56:55Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > “There is something going on. The FBI needs to announce an investigation into Joe Biden RIGHT NOW!!! Questions are being asked. People are talking. INVESTIGATION” This is just the break the McCain campaign has been waiting for! ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/350 "2020-10-29T03:16:44Z")
[Daily Caller: Tucker Carlson’s dog ate his homework](https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/28/tucker-carlson-damning-hunter-biden-documents-vanished/) Even as a last ditch effort, this is lame. They realized their smoking gun was shooting blanks, so they make it look like the Deep State Impossible Missions Force intercepted these documents sent via FedEx or whatever. I swear to Og, if I submitted this as a script for a movie, I’d be shot. And not with blanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/351 "2020-10-29T03:20:20Z")
That is like the movie script where a novelist has his manuscript destroyed, and he has no copy. This actually happened, but I can’t remember the movie ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/352 "2020-10-29T03:31:23Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > [Daily Caller: Tucker Carlson’s dog ate his homework](https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/28/tucker-carlson-damning-hunter-biden-documents-vanished/) > > Even as a last ditch effort, this is lame. They realized their smoking gun was shooting blanks, so they make it look like the Deep State Impossible Missions Force intercepted these documents sent via FedEx or whatever. > Carlson did not offer any information about what might have been revealed in the missing documents and did not indicate whether his producers had made copies of the documents prior to sending them. Copies? Damn, we should have done that. Gosh darn. And what was in them? Oh, stuff. Bad stuff about Biden, I can assure you of that. Tucker Carlson is a lying sack of shit. But don’t take my word for it. You can ask Federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, who agreed with Fox’s own network lawyers about Carlson and his show: > This “general tenor” of the show should then inform a viewer that he is not “stating actual facts” about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in “exaggeration” and “non-literal commentary.” . . . Fox persuasively argues . . . that given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer “arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism” about the statements he makes. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/353 "2020-10-29T04:06:59Z")
This entire laptop situation between **Hands** and the rest of us reminds me of the recording studio scene in \*Boogie Nights: Dirk Diggler: Look, man, all we need is the tapes, alright? Record Producer: No, you don’t get the tapes until you’ve paid. Dirk Diggler: In our situation, that doesn’t make any fucking sense! Reed Rothchild: Look, we can not pay for the tapes, unless we take the tapes to the record company, and get paid. Dirk Diggler Hello? Exactly!! Record Producer: That’s not an MP, that’s a YP, your problem. Come up with the money, or forget it. Reed Rothchild: Okay, now you’re talking above my head. I don’t know all of this industry jargon, YP, MP. All I know is that I can’t get a record contract, we cannot get a record contract unless we take those tapes to the record company. And granted, the tapes themselves are a uh um oh, you own them, alright, but the magic that is on those tapes. That fucking heart and soul that we put onto those tapes, that is ours and you don’t own that! Now I need to take that magic and get it over the record company. And they’re waiting for us, we were supposed to be there a half hour ago. We look like assholes, man! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/354 "2020-10-29T04:07:16Z")
> [@Hands](#): > > You may not want to think it was censured but it has been Censored, not censured. And no, it hasnt been. The Government has not banned the story. The fact that a few outlets have decided not to cover it as it is fake bullshit news is not censorship. Or censureship. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/355 "2020-10-29T04:09:29Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > So Hunter Biden’s partner, who is a primary participant in those emails, says they are true, and who has turned over copies to the FBI that match those on the hard drive, doesn’t count? Not “partner”, they worked together on something, at best 'associate". and no, it doesnt. It is fake news made up by the Kremlin. And even if not, it has nothing whatsoever to do with JOE Biden. Not to mention, compared to trumps shady dealings, this rates about a 2 on a scale of 1-10. Remember, _trump got impeached over this_, he committed acts of treason and abuse of power. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/356 "2020-10-29T04:14:03Z")
> [@Hands](#): > > I believe they have since found a receipt of Hunter when he dropped off the laptop and verified his signature. Oh you _believe_ that , do you? 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/357 "2020-10-29T04:22:27Z")
One more time- **Hunter Biden is not running for President.** ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/358 "2020-10-29T05:21:28Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > That is like the movie script where a novelist has his manuscript destroyed, and he has no copy. This actually happened, but I can’t remember the movie It happens in the Stephen King movie _Misery_ — which happened to be on TV today. Some terrific acting rescuing a slight screenplay. And yes that detail is one of the weaknesses. ---
**Author:** ![agzem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@agzem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agzem)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/359 "2020-10-29T06:15:07Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > The credibility of the “evidence” was so shabby in nature that Fox News, presented with it first, declined to run it Bret Baier said yesterday that’s not true. It **wasn’t** offered to Fox News before the NY Post story ran. That’s been used as a talking point to discredit the laptop contents but it’s not true. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/360 "2020-10-29T06:25:53Z")
I was unaware that Mr Baier runs Fox News. I thought he was a political correspondent. Now I find out he knows absolutely everything that goes on there. Wow! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/361 "2020-10-29T10:13:19Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I wonder what the left would have said if one of Trump’s ex-business partners came out saying that Trump was a crook, that he had documentation to that effect, was willjng to be interviewed by the FBI, and who turned over phones with voice conversations corroborating his story? > > I’m sure everyone would just say there was nothing to see there, because the guy probably had an axe to grind or something. Ironically, you’ve pretty much just described Michael Cohen and the right’s reaction to him. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/362 "2020-10-29T12:12:10Z")
Except Cohen actually had and could produce the tapes of his conversations with Trump. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587/363 "2020-10-29T12:45:26Z")
> [@Hands](#): > > the point is: Biden says that he never discussed any of Hunters business with him. Some people say that he is lying because it just isn’t plausible given what we know. So ownership of the laptop is just a detail in getting to the bottom of the allegations. The important thing is the info on the laptop. The media is doing their best to ignore that info because it is in their interest to do so. I will ask you again what I’ve asked you twice now: What information do we have, that has been independently corroborated, about the authenticity of the claims that this is a) HB’s laptop, and, b) that the information on this laptop is authentic? You are repeating claims yet unsubstantiated by any reliable sources. If any of these allegations are proven to be substantive, then yes, this is going to be highly problematic for the Bidens. I can appreciate that from a pro-Trump/anti-Dem perspective, this would be manna from heaven. But we have been down this path before with multiple investigations by bi-partisan government commissions, members of which were highly motivated to find some grain of truth to the fact that Joe Biden was somehow involved with illegal activities related to Ukraine and/or China. Barr, a well established Trump crony, has not brought the DOJ to bear on the Bidens for the very same reason that investigative bodies have not done so – there is no there there. Now, you can continue to “ask questions” and wring your hands in “concern”, but your insinuations will continue to look exceedingly foolish until substantive evidence is provided by trusted independent sources that implicate the Bidens as having engaged in corrupt or illegal behavior. Until then, what you’ve got, in legal terms, is _bupkis_. And I say this as someone who has made the argument that Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma showed very poor judgement and arguably lead to exactly these kinds of insinuations. So while there appears to be no evidence that he’s done anything illegal, nor would we be talking about this if his father hadn’t decided to run for POTUS, it is now being literally Trumped up against him and more importantly, Joe Biden. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunter-biden-laptop-question/923587.md?page=19)