If anyone deserves to be eulogized on film, it’s Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner.
His public testimony to the House impeachment inquiry into Biden corruption last month is the subject of a new Tucker Carlson short documentary on X, “The Man In the Arena.”
This is a patriot who is built for combat. The successful California businessman is a former Penn State champion wrestler, naval officer, and nuclear submarine instructor, from a family of Navy, Army and Air Force veterans going back three generations on both sides.
The short film opens with Bobulinski working out in typical hard-core fashion in the Westin hotel gym in Washington, DC, before he heads to Congress to do battle with Democrats and their hand-picked Ukrainian disinformation artist, convicted felon Lev Parnas.
Bobulinski calls them all liars to their faces, and their umbrage is a delight to watch.
“Reps. Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers … will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies,” he testified.
Bobulinski also called President Biden “a serial liar and fabulist now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption.”
He accused the president of violating federal laws against bribery, unregistered foreign lobbying, and participating in a criminal conspiracy when he met Bobulinski, Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden in May 2017 to discuss a joint venture with Chinese energy company CEFC.
“Do you believe [Joe Biden] should be impeached?” he was asked.
“I do,” Bobulinski answered. “I know he committed high crimes and misdemeanors. I was involved and saw them happen.”
Bobulinski has been targeted by left-wing opposition research groups protecting the Biden family and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money on lawyers to get the truth before the American people.
Facts First USA, funded with more than $10 million of Democratic dark money, was founded by self-described former “right-wing hit man”-turned-Democratic activist David Brock as a “SWAT team to counter Republican congressional investigations” into Joe and Hunter.
The group is part of an elaborate strategy by Biden donors to protect the president, including a legal defense fund for Hunter, and extensive dirt-digging on witnesses such as Bobulinski.
Brock laid out his plans in a fundraising memo in October 2022. He would target witnesses, journalists, and members of Congress investigating the Bidens, weaponize social media, and suppress the story, or as Brock put it, “limit the reach of the right-wing rage machine — to keep it within their own echo chamber rather than allowing it to become part of the mainstream media coverage … putting the mainstream reporters on notice that they will be held accountable if they simply buy into Republican propaganda …
“Facts First will win the war of public opinion by controlling the narrative — not just by defending against the partisan witch hunt, but by aggressively turning the tables on the attackers with offensive maneuvers and strong counter-narratives that reveal their motivations and misconduct and tell our side of the story.”
They were as good as their word, but the weight of the evidence against the Bidens has denied them a narrative victory.
By the end of last year, an AP-NORC poll showed more than two-thirds (68%) of Americans believed Joe Biden at the very least had acted unethically in his handling of his son’s overseas business dealings, including a third who thought he did something illegal. Only one-third thought he had done nothing wrong.
A good deal of the reason that the false narrative didn’t take hold was Bobulinski’s relentless effort to expose the corruption he witnessed in the CEFC venture.
“There’s still a huge portion of the American population that don’t understand the story [and] don’t understand the facts,” he says in the film. “I was willing to die for this country and I’m willing to fight and tell the American people the truth.”
Bobulinski told the inquiry that the American people were being presented with “two narratives in this investigation: a false one being pushed by Joe Biden [and his defenders].
“You also have before you the truth, confirmed by multiple Biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence, including text messages, emails, documents, and recordings. I am the only Biden family business partner with an impeccable military record … I worked hard to become independently wealthy, [and] my business success is why the Biden family enterprise sought me out.
“However, what they have done is repugnant to me. I am here today because I am a patriot and a truth-teller.”
The film captures the farcical climax of the hearing when “Squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deployed the Dan Goldman Method of asking a boomerang question that comes back to smash you in the face.
“Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime?”
“Yes,” Bobulinski said, deadpan.
“And what crime have you witnessed” she asked smarmily.
“How much time do I have to go through it?” he replied.
“It is simple,” said AOC. “You name the crime. Did you watch him steal something?”
“Corruption statutes, RICO and conspiracy, FARA,” said Bobulinski.
AOC, panicking, shouted over him: “What is the crime, sir, specifically!”
“You asked me to answer the question. I answered the question. RICO, you’re obviously not familiar with, corruption statutes, FARA,” Bobulinski repeated.
AOC, her voice a high-pitched squeal: “Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. RICO is not a crime. It is a category. What is the crime?”
Violating RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws obviously is a crime. RICO has been described as the “ultimate hit man” in mob prosecutions, allowing prosecutors to go after the leadership of a corrupt organization, not just the foot soldiers and bagmen.
The camera captures a relaxed Bobulinski in a break after the altercation.
“I guess I must have pounded on AOC,” he says. “It didn’t really feel like it, but my phone is melting down [with] all my friends going ‘AOC, AOC.’”
It was no contest, and we’re all the better for it. Bobulinski, 1; Democratic apologists for corruption, 0.