Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio in 2021 (Gage Skidmore)
Republicans had a huge problem with Hunter Biden and any possible business deals that he was able to get, they said, by using his father's name. Now that President Donald Trump and his children are using the office to score billions, Republicans don't care about corruption anymore.
November 2025 polls showed that Americans across party lines see political corruption as widespread, deeply entrenched and closely tied to money and self-dealing. By June 2026, a Brennan Center survey revealed that 92 percent of registered voters called corruption a big problem in politics and government. Those numbers include 90 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats and 93 percent of independents.
A Reuters poll released this week showed that most Americans believe that Trump has inappropriately profited off of the presidency. In Jan. 2025, those numbers were at 43 percent, but as of this week, 59 percent disapprove of Trump's corruption.
MS NOW's Jack Fitzpatrick and JM Rieger confronted Republicans who took issue with Biden and asked them where they stand now that Americans see Trump and the GOP as untrustworthy on corruption.
"Journalists have documented wide-ranging investments by the Trump family that may benefit from the president’s policies. Trump’s two eldest sons are linked to investments in at least 10 defense firms that have drawn about $3.7 billion in federal funds since Trump took office," the reporters wrote.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis), for example, spent years ranting about Biden-family corruption. In Sept. 2020, before Biden was even elected, Johnson released an 87-page report claiming that Hunter Biden "cashed in" on the vice presidency. He failed to find any connection to Joe Biden, however.
The reporters cited a March 2023 Fox Business interview in which Johnson called the Bidens “a thoroughly corrupt family,” seeking to “peddle the Biden name and peddle their influence all over the world, hoovering up dollars all over the world.”
When confronted about where he stands on Trump-family corruption, Johnson didn't care.
“I’m sure you guys are going to investigate all that,” he said. “Knock yourselves out.”
He said he had no intention of looking into corruption from the Trump family. Instead, he said that journalists would do it.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) similarly spent his time as chair of the House Judiciary Committee talking about Biden impeachment in 2016. He released a 291-page report in August 2024 claiming he found “impeachable conduct.”
Asked if he's looked into the mining venture that the Trump sons scored in Kazakhstan or the "stable coin" venture with the UAE, Jordan said he had not “looked at it.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was shouted in a November 2022 hearing that what Hunter Biden did was “official corruption from the then-vice president.”
Today, Cruz says, “I don’t have concerns on that front.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) similarly said in Jan. 2023 that lawmakers should find the truth about the Bidens because they were making policy decisions "right now." He hasn't looked into the Trump investments, he told MS NOW.
“We operate under our Article One authority. They operate under their constitutional authority. I’m not going to tell them how to do their job, and they’re not going to tell me how to do my job," said Republican Rep. Mark Alford (Mo.), adding that he wasn't that concerned about the Trump investments. He's pressed stock trading limits on lawmakers, but said he wouldn't put those similar constraints on the president.
He once referred to Biden as “the most corrupt president we have had.”
"And then there was Rep. Lauren Boebert," the report described. "The Colorado Republican offered perhaps the bluntest explanation for the double standard."
She claimed Biden was “lying to the American people about his shady foreign business deals" and demanded his impeachment.
When asked about the double standard she said, “The president doesn’t talk to you. Why should I?”