Hunter Biden suggests Iran strikes are a smokescreen for Epstein files fallout

Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. President Joe Biden, was in no mood to take prisoners, running a poll on his X account asking whether President Donald Trump started the war with Iran to distract from his relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Within hours, thousands of votes poured in, with 80 percent of the 22,821 respondents agreeing with Biden's assessment. 

In a follow-up post on the thread, Biden questioned Vice President JD Vance's reported use of the White House Situation Room — usually reserved for national security matters — to lead meetings about the fallout from the Epstein files release. "Trump keeps telling everyone to move on while the Epstein story keeps getting bigger and closer to home. Then BOOM. We're in a war with Iran. A war nobody voted for, nobody wanted, and few can clearly explain," he wrote on X.

Biden pointed out how quickly the news cycle shifted once the war broke out in February this year and Epstein disappeared from the headlines. "You can outrun a news cycle. The print and legacy news media is a joke. You can't outrun Epstein forever," he said, adding that the American public wasn't "stupid" and was keeping a close watch on the administration. "We are united in the Tired of the Bullshit party," he concluded.

The post landed amid backlash over a The New York Times report detailing how Vance led 'war room'-style Situation Room meetings to manage the Epstein fallout. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that Chairman James Comer (R-KY) arrange interviews with nine senior administration officials following the newspaper's reporting. This includes Vance, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Garcia has been relentless in his campaign to mount pressure this past week, calling the 'war room' meetings a cover-up to shield Trump from the Epstein controversy. He has managed to get Comer to concede on Blanche, at least — Comer told reporters that he is communicating with the Justice Department about having Blanche testify in July, with questions centered on whether any documents beyond the 3.5 million already published remain pending for release.

Hunter Biden's claim also tapped into a 'wag the dog' narrative already echoed by figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, arguing that military action abroad serves as political cover at home. Greene has previously accused the administration of indulging in "shiny object propaganda" by releasing a large tranche of Unidentified Flying Object files to distract from "unnecessary wars," lack of arrests in the Epstein case, and a devalued dollar.