Former Obama ethics chief blasts Biden White House hires and ‘grifty’ Hunter Biden art auction

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Former ethics chief Walter Shaub is not happy.

Shaub, who served in the Obama administration as the director of the Office of Government Ethics, is upset for a couple of reasons.

First, he is angry President Joe Biden’s pledge that “no one in our family and extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking” doesn’t apply to all White House officials.

“At least five children of his top aides have secured coveted jobs in the new administration,” the Washington Post reported this week.

Shaub is also angry Hunter Biden is auctioning his amateur artwork to undisclosed buyers for as much as $500,000 a pop. This art payday comes on top of the fact the president’s son also scored a lucrative gig at a Ukrainian energy company, despite having no background in energy and not even speaking Ukrainian.

For Shaub, the art gig is just too much.

“It makes perfect sense that a hedge fund manager with no art training who has never sold a piece would seek $500,000 for his doodles,” he groused on social media, “and anyone who thinks the payoff’s based on his relation to POTUS is patently crazy.”

Elsewhere, during an appearance on Fox News, Shaub argued, “The notion of a president’s son capitalizing on that relationship by selling art at obviously inflated prices and keeping the public in the dark about who’s funneling money to him has a shameful and grifty feel to it.”

He continued, explaining that keeping the sellers anonymous allows “influence-seekers” to purchase access to the president.

“Just as hotel charges and real estate purchases created a risk of unknown parties funneling money to the Trump family for potentially unsavory purposes,” Shaub said, “Hunter Biden’s grotesquely inflated art prices create a similar risk of influence-seekers funneling money to the Biden family.”

It’s only prudent, he added, that the identities of the buyers be disclosed so the public can know whether anyone is attempting to buy access to the White House.

The “public should not have to take it on blind faith that government officials will behave,” Shaub said, regardless of whether “any attempt to curry favor or buy influence is likely to succeed.”

“But, I also think it’s ridiculous that Hunter Biden is even going forward with this sale as a first-time artist,” he continued. “He can’t possibly think anyone is paying him based on the quality of the art. This smells like an attempt to cash in on a family connection to the White House.”

“At a minimum, the president should be asking his son not to go through with this auction,” Shaub added.

The younger Biden, who is recovering from drug addiction, paints in his spare time as a form of therapy. Now, the young Biden’s therapy artwork is set to sell for anywhere between $75,000 to $500,000, thanks to a deal brokered by art dealer Georges Berges, who keeps all sales confidential.

Berges’s representing agency, The Townsend Group, argues it’s perfectly normal for amateur artists to sell their artwork for as much as $500,000 to anonymous buyers.

“Pricing fine art in his experiences as a Gallerist is based on the demand of the work as well and the intrinsic value of it,” the group told Fox Business. “His feeling is that within each piece — as with every artist, sales are always confidential to protect the privacy of the collector. This is standard practice for transactions in galleries as well as auction houses.”

Shaub is also disturbed by the fact the Biden administration has hired family members of White House officials. He has reason to be distraught. Indeed, with the hiring of so many administration family members, it appears the president’s anti-nepotism pledge was clearly just anti-Donald Trump lip service.

“[T]his royally sucks,” Shaub said on social media. “I’m disgusted. A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises. This is a real ‘f*** you’ to us — and government ethics.”

He added, “The jobs went to privileged kiddos with mommies & daddies who cozied up to POTUS. Nepotism is illegal.”

That’s not all. Shaub was just getting started.

“EVEN THE F****** HEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL PERSONNEL,” he said on social media, “WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING THEM HONEST, HAS A CHILD WHO’S A RECENT COLLEGE GRAD WORKING IN THE ADMINISTRATION. AND THE SPOUSE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. This is ridiculous. What a f****** failure.”

He added, “When little problems like this, which are so damn easy to avoid, crop up, it’s a sign of much bigger rot. Because if you can’t even do the easy things, you sure as hell can’t do the hard things.”

Shaub continued, saying he feels betrayed by Biden.

“I’m the stupid moron who fell for his false promises,” he said. “I wasn’t naive enough to think he’d be a transformative president. He told us he’d be plain vanilla. But, I thought there was momentum behind his ethics promises. Boy, was I stupid.”

He added, “So, yeah. I’m disappointed. I’m angry. I supported this guy. I provided help to the campaign and the transition because I believed ethics was going to be a priority.”

I mean, I get it.

Who knew good ol’ Joe Biden, who represented the credit card state in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, has such a transactional view of politics? It’s a surprise to all of us.

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