Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland took some heat almost immediately from a prominent gun rights organization after his opening remarks during Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing during which he portrayed Hunter Biden as “a rich guy exercising his Second Amendment rights.”
President Joe Biden’s son worked out a deal with the Justice Department involving his purchase of a handgun and entering false information on the federal Form 4473, at a time he was using drugs. The handgun subsequently was dumped in a trash container near a school.
The House panel heard testimony from two government whistleblowers about interference in conducting an investigation into the younger Biden’s activities.
But it was Raskin’s comment which earned brickbats from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“I’m not sure whether to shake my head in disgust or just laugh out loud,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Raskin’s flippant dismissal of what would otherwise be a serious criminal act if anybody other than Hunter Biden were involved is either a new low in attempted sarcasm, or an exhibition of monumental stupidity.”
Fox News reported that Raskin—in an apparent effort to change the focus from Hunter Biden to House Republicans—declared that “MAGA Republicans” were suddenly siding with “IRS agents from the deep state against a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney and a rich guy exercising his Second Amendment rights but now facing criminal gun charges and tax charges that they would call in any other circumstances purely technical.”
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb was having none of it.
“Jamie Raskin needs to understand something about federal gun laws,” he observed. “Typical rich guys exercising their Second Amendment rights don’t get stoned on drugs before they go gun shopping. Rich guys buying guns don’t lie on a Form 4473 and expect to get away with it. Rich guys don’t allow their girlfriends to toss handguns into dumpsters located near public schools. Rich guys, and even poor guys, don’t get special treatment from federal prosecutors regarding gun-related crimes unless their last name is Biden and their dad is president.”
Last month, Gottlieb was vocal about the deal Hunter Biden cut with the Justice Department to dispose of the gun charge.
“Why should anybody respect any gun laws if the president’s son gets a pass,” Gottlieb said at the time. “The American public should be outraged at what amounts to a deplorable double standard.
“It is important to note that none of the gun prohibition lobbying groups have uttered a word of condemnation,” he added. “This fact alone shows what hypocrites they are, and what a hypocrite Joe Biden is. Their silence is deafening.”
He called Hunter Biden’s arrangement the “Biden loophole.”
‘If someone else got this level of preferential treatment on a gun law violation,” he stated, “Raskin and his fellow Democrats would be howling about it, and they know it.
“Raskin never met a restrictive gun control law he didn’t immediately love,” Gottlieb continued, “until the law could be used to put a Biden behind bars. Then, all of a sudden, the Maryland congressman tries to portray the allegations against Hunter Biden to be an attack on the Second Amendment. The hypocrisy is staggering.”
