This is the hill Geraldo picks to die on?

With Republicans on the House Oversight Committee bearing down on first son Hunter Biden's financial records, the knee-jerk liberal at Fox News decided that Tuesday would be a good time to issue a Twitter challenge to Hunter's legion of critics to "put up or shut up" when it came to law-breaking activity.

Unfortunately for both Hunter and Geraldo, he had plenty of takers.

Hunter Biden has been investigated for almost five years. Aside from fact he’s been a junkie dirtbag nothing remotely criminal has been uncovered.
Put up or shut up.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) March 14, 2023

"Hunter Biden has been investigated for almost five years. Aside from fact he’s been a junkie dirtbag nothing remotely criminal has been uncovered," Rivera wrote.

"Put up or shut up."

Well, even if a disgraceful history of drug abuse, adultery and child abandonment were all there was to the Hunter Biden story, River's glib "aside from fact he's been a junkie dirtbag" would rank right up there with "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" as a masterwork of eliding the obvious.

But as anyone who's followed Hunter's saga with even a half-open eye knows, there's a lot more to Hunter's perfidy than personal transgression.

Mollie Hemingway, top-selling author, editor-in-chief of conservative website The Federalist and Fox News contributor, has both eyes more than half open.

Mollie Hemingway has an entry for Geraldo Rivera’s ‘put up or shut up’ challenge about Hunter Biden https://t.co/pNV8Llch2Y

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 15, 2023

And she let Rivera know it, in a response bristling with mockery.

Setting aside the gun crimes, prostitution crimes, drug crimes, tax crimes, bribery receipts, foreign agent shenanigans, money laundering, pay-for-play, and kid-glove treatment from the corrupt and politicized FBI and DOJ, this is a really astute observation. https://t.co/mU76xrqqT2

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) March 15, 2023

"Setting aside the gun crimes, prostitution crimes, drug crimes, tax crimes, bribery receipts, foreign agent shenanigans, money laundering, pay-for-play, and kid-glove treatment from the corrupt and politicized FBI and DOJ, this is a really astute observation," she wrote.

That puts it succinctly.

It's undisputed public knowledge that Hunter Biden lied on a background check form while purchasing a gun in 2018. He's written a whole book about using illegal drugs. He has a documented history of what are euphemistically called "tax issues."

Hunter himself has effectively admitted that his lucrative job as a board member of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma was a result of his last name.

The kid-glove treatment of Hunter Biden by the Department of Justice and the FBI Hemingway referred to is a parody of privilege and power.

The FBI, remember, had the Hunter Biden laptop for almost a year before the public became aware of it and its incendiary, incriminating contents thanks to the New York Post's reporting in 2020 -- reporting that was squelched by the lords of social media at the instigation of the FBI.

Plenty of Hemingway's followers on Twitter chimed in with their own answers to the Rivera challenge:

As one Twitter user put it, "last I knew being called a junkie would require the possession of some kind of illegal drug. Geraldo never disappoints."

Obviously agree with you on all of it, but last I knew being called a junkie would require the possession of some kind of illegal drug. Geraldo never disappoints.

— MagsKettle (@Magskettle) March 15, 2023

"Dropping your famous-person-dad's name as part of your con to impress people =/= pay-to-play," another wrote.

Dropping your famous-person-dad's name as part of your con to impress people =/= pay-to-play.

— Ira Goldman (@KDbyProxy) March 15, 2023

And this one nailed it:

"That Hunter hasn't been arrested for the myriad crimes for which there is ample evidence on the laptop isn't an indication of his innocence. It's proof of the type of corruption we typically see in 3rd world countries."

That Hunter hasn't been arrested for the myriad crimes for which there is ample evidence on the laptop isn't an indication of his innocence. It's proof of the type of corruption we typically see in 3rd world countries.

— Noel Cooke (@NoelCooke_) March 15, 2023

Meanwhile, Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced on Tuesday that his committee has managed to get through stonewalling by the Treasury Department to get access to records that indicated "suspicious activity" when it came to the Biden family's finances.

"After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us with access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement on the Oversight Committee's website.

“It should never have taken us threatening to hold a hearing and conduct a transcribed interview with an official under the penalty of perjury for Treasury to finally accommodate part of our request.”

The Treasury records Comer is getting are called "suspicious activity reports," and are generated required from banks and other financial institutions when transactions involve large amounts of money that are suspected of being involved in money laundering, according to a Reuters report explaining the process.

The more the country learns about Hunter Biden's dealings with foreign companies and governments -- including China and its communist dictatorship -- the more the country should be worried that the president himself has been compromised by his own past.

As Comer's statement on the committee's website made clear, there is more at stake than Hunter Biden or even the whole Biden family.

“According to bank documents we’ve already obtained, we know one company owned by a Biden associate received a $3 million dollar wire from a Chinese energy company two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency. Soon after, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payouts went to members of the Biden family.

"We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat. If Treasury tries to stonewall our investigation again, we will continue to use tools at our disposal to compel compliance.”

To a normal person, that's a big deal. To a patriotic American, that should be a very big deal.

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But to a card-carrying member of the establishment media like Geraldo, Hunter Biden is simply a "junkie dirtbag," not admirable, but evidently no more guilty -- and no more worthy of attention -- than any of the countless millions of others who've struggled with addiction.

But there's much more to Hunter Biden than that -- dangerously much more.

Mollie Hemingway knows it. Honest Americans who follow the news know it.

Geraldo, either overconfidently corrupt himself or crippled by the willful blindness of the rest of the establishment media when it comes to Biden corruption allegations, issued a challenge about the wrong person at the wrong time.

And, boy, did he get an answer.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.