Candidate Trump made Clinton's sloppy handling of government documents a focus of his campaign, encouraging his supporters to chant "lock her up" during his rallies, even stating during a debate that if he was elected she would be in jail and that he would (if elected) "instruct the Attorney General to 'look into' (he was always "looking into" things, wasn't he?) the missing emails". Of course, once in power he did no such thing. Like his "Build the Wall" chants, it was an applause line, an attempt to demonize his opponent, and get the masses on his side with meaningless one-liners. It helped that Secretary Clinton had already been investigated, and that the FBI had found nothing worth charging her over, and that otherwise, the supposed "crimes" were simply results of legitimate policies. Nonetheless, once Trump won the election Clinton was no longer a threat and it was safe to ignore her and move on to the job of making leadership of the free world all about stroking his ego.
It didn't take long for investigations into Trump to take place. But what Trump was being accused of - "collusion with Russia" to influence the lection - had a factual basis. A Trump campaign associate bragged to a foreign diplomat about the help the campaign was receiving from Russia - the diplomat then reported this conversation to the FBI. Wiretaps on Russian agents in the U.S. revealed contact with Trump campaign officials. (The "Steele Dossier", which formed part of the FBI investigation, was never independently corroborated, but despite accusations by Trump, was not the reason the investigation started). There was an abundance of suspicious activity by the Trump campaign, which took place before the election and therefore was not related to Trump's duties as president, to warrant an investigation. And it should be noted that the Mueller probe was initiated by the Trump Justice Department. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from oversight of the investigation in order to obviate any accusations of partisanship, for which he was reviled by Trump. Even though Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign actively coordinated with Russian agents, nor did their actions rise to the legal definition of conspiracy, he did find that they willingly accepted any help that Russia was willing to give. ("Collusion" is not a legal term). He also determined that Trump's actions during the investigation constituted obstruction of justice, but that Department of Justice policy was that a sitting president could not be indicted. Attorney General Barr incorrectly characterized the report as exonerating Trump.
Despite some back-bencher Democrats wanting to impeach Trump on Day One, Democratic Congressional leadership did not actually proceed with impeachment until they had something concrete. The Mueller Report, as damning as it was to someone who actually read it, was so full of legal jargon it's likely that most Americans wouldn't be able to understand the points being made. Trump was off the hook for now. But he correctly surmised that Joe Biden would be his opponent in the 2020 election and set about to undermine Biden. Biden's son Hunter would be the weak spot he would attempt to exploit.
One of the methods by which Republicans have continually attempted to open up investigations (or at least talk about it) into Joe Biden was not to use facts as a jumping off point, but to conjure up fantasies that could be true, but have no actual basis in reality. Hunter Biden was a board member of a Ukrainian energy company. He was paid well for this position. It's not unusual for family members of influential people to score lucrative positions like this. The fact is that Burisma, the company in question, was thoroughly investigated and no corruption was found. It was alleged that Joe Biden, as Vice President, forced out the chief Ukrainian prosecutor to prevent him from investigating his son's company, when the U.S. wanted the prosecutor out because he wasn't investigating corruption. There was nothing to investigate. Son of politician gets a cushy job. End of story. Except for Trump. His "perfect phone" call, according to the transcript that he himself released, has him threatening the Ukrainian president with withholding aid unless he announces an investigation into the Bidens. And he got impeached for it.
This was the start of the obsession by Republicans with Hunter Biden, despite nothing ever surfacing that indicates Joe Biden did anything illegal. Hunter Biden may be charged with not paying taxes, illegal possession of a firearm and other, in the grand scheme of things, piddling offenses. Did Hunter Biden get his jobs based on his surname? Without a doubt. Is he a serial screw-up who has squandered opportunities time and time again? Also true. Is he an evil genius who, with the current President of the United States, his father, is molding U.S. foreign policy to enrich himself and his family? As President Biden would say "C'mon Man!" - it takes more than just a screenwriter's imaginative plotline of how it could be, it takes evidence. The fact that a lot of Bidens and their "associates" made a lot of money over a lot of years or structured their finances by setting up a lot of interlocking LLC's (that's what a "shell company" usually is) isn't evidence, it's wishful thinking.
And it's distraction.
It's a distraction to the fact that the former president is under indictment in one case, he or his company have been found liable in several civil cases, and there are possibly several other indictments coming soon.
Trump and his cult like to call all the investigations into his conduct a "witch hunt", ignoring that there has always been concrete reasons to investigate and sometimes charge him. In some cases the evidence is his own words that have been revealed by whistleblowers or that he published himself on social media. It's not beyond belief that some of the investigations have been politically motivated, but it can't be denied that they are all based on concrete indications that a law had been broken. Trump has always operated within a miasma of impunity. He has always believed that the law didn't apply to him, and getting elected president just made it worse.
So, in response to legitimate inquiries into alleged illegal actions by Losin' Donnie, he and his allies are desperate to "both sides" things by accusing Biden of fantasy crimes. Despite a lot of hype about the "evidence", all they have come up with is "some people that Joe Biden knows made a lot of money". Even the much awaited bombshell news conference produced nothing but more fantasies. One of the Republicans' "investigatory" committees have subpoenaed Biden bank account records. Did any of the Trump cult wonder who President Biden made no move to block the release of his records, as Trump regularly does? He has nothing to hide, that's why.
Like him or not, support his policies or not, Biden is a lifetime public servant, Trump is a serial grifter who is finally seeing some consequences.
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