“Every great family is persecuted … you are part of a great family — not a side show, not deserted by them even in your darkest moments. That’s the way Bidens are different, and you are a Biden. It’s the price of power and the people questioning you truly have none.”
—Hunter Biden to his former business partner Devon Archer
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority … There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
—Lord Acton
I have no reason to suspect that Chris McCutcheon has ever cooked crack or courted high-end escorts. But being the son of a politically-connected father means he does have at least one thing in common with Hunter Biden. Worse than any chemical or carnal vice, power tends to engender corruption in men no matter their nation or station, from Ukraine to China to Madison County, Alabama.
Former Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon has suspicious financial ties to a fraudulent and now-defunct medical testing company, QBR, 1819 News recently reported. Mac McCutcheon was once a paid consultant for QBR, even intervening in the legislative process on behalf of the company’s core business.
Why QBR? Because blood is always stronger than any monetary interest. The best family businesses always put family first.
Mac McCutcheon’s son, Chris, served as QBR’s CFO from the company’s inception. Not only did Chris McCutcheon use his father’s political connections to boost QBR’s business, the younger McCutcheon also used that same business as his own personal piggy bank — financing extravagant family vacations and tuition payments with company money — only to then blow the whistle on QBR’s fraudulent financial practices. The tree may have been poisonous, yet its fruits were still sweet enough to be enjoyed by Chris McCutcheon — until he decided to burn down the tree for his own benefit.
That’s where Chris McCutcheon has a second thing in common with Hunter Biden: he remains a free man while his former business partner is facing time in federal prison.
Chris McCutcheon walked away with all the money — including a $160,000 settlement buyout from QBR — while CEO Hornbuckle faces time in federal prison, based on a whistleblower lawsuit Chris McCutcheon filed on the same day he received his $160K settlement. Hunter Biden’s former business partner and Burisma board member, Devon Archer, is likewise facing federal prison time for fraudulent activity despite promises of “you are a Biden.”
Again, blood is stronger than any financial bond. Family names cannot be fully bought; even those great families taking bids are only selling partial shares at a heavy price. Outsiders will never have a controlling interest in the family business. Powerful political families have a knack for foisting any potential persecution on those they once called partners and friends. Those who, like Hornbuckle, think they can use political connections to their own benefit, often end up being used themselves, either left holding the bag (like Hornbuckle) or fleeced by such connections (former Biden associate Tony Bobulinski claims the Bidens defrauded him of millions of dollars).
Despite mountains of publicly available evidence of illegal activity, Hunter Biden has yet to be charged with any crime. His father is still President of the United States and “chairman” of the Biden family business. And despite the numerous guilty pleas and convictions of their former associates at QBR in federal court, Mac and Chris McCutcheon remain uncharged of any wrongdoing by federal authorities. Mac, meanwhile, enjoys his newfound position as chairman of the Madison County Commission, appointed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey.
How do they do it?
Former Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski got to the heart of the matter in a 2020 interview with Tucker Carlson. After raising concerns about the family’s dealings with China and its effects on Joe Biden’s presidential aspirations, Jim Biden just chuckled to Bobulinski saying, “Plausible Deniability.”
Sadly, such denials are only plausible for a select few. Most Americans are not afforded the same “plausibilities” when on the hook themselves. Common sense dictates some Americans are more equal than others. No one should be surprised. Power adores hierarchy, even in a supposedly “free and equal” society.
Powerful families know persecution is merely the price of their power. In the fallen world of politics, one must persecute or be persecuted, cheat or be cheated, kill or be killed, live by the corrupting influence of power or die by it.
To that end, great families are almost always bad families. To question their power only reminds them of how much power they hold — and intend to keep it by whatever means necessary.
Are such families often full of hypocrisy and corruption? Yes, but that is the price of being on top. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s hierarchy.
Calling out political families for betraying principles they never held in the first place is twisting a rope of sand. Better to call out great families directly for their sins, rather than bemoaning they aren’t the saints they claim to be.
Does this mean those who question power truly have none themselves and should just give up? No! Those willing to suffer injustice for truth, goodness and beauty will always hold an ultimate check on power. The dutiful suffering servant, by paying the necessary price of his suffering, can reveal the most profane abuses of power for what they are. The suffering servant has repeatedly shown the world that the so-called sanctity offered by power has always been heresy and a blind alley of self-important fools.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 9 am-12 noon. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email newsandviews931@gmail.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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