It’s the Hunter Biden summer surprise that President Joe Biden’s campaign has been dreading — and it’s not coming from his chief rival for the Oval Office, former President Donald Trump.
Instead, a political ally and key financial backer of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign is hyping an explosive new book by a woman who had a child with Hunter Biden, promising “revelations that could well impact the outcome of the 2024 election.”
The co-chairman of the pro-Kennedy super PAC American Values 2024, Tony Lyons, announced plans on Tuesday to publish “Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden” this summer through his company Skyhorse Publishing.
The memoir is written by Lunden Roberts, a former stripper who gave birth to Biden’s daughter in 2018. Hunter and the first family rejected the troubled Biden’s daughter for years.
Lyons, whose publishing house has donated over $150,000 to the Kennedy super PAC this cycle, is portraying the book as a potential “August bombshell” that could upend Biden’s re-election chances just weeks before Election Day. Its Aug. 20 release appears strategically timed to maximize impacts on the campaign.
“This firsthand account from the woman who brought a child into the world with Hunter Biden tells a story of redemption and hope, despite its place within the firestorm of political hearsay,” Skyhorse’s description states.
The RFK Jr. ally’s full-court press promotion of the “wild world of Hunter Biden” memoir represents the latest attempt to weaponize the president’s son’s drug addiction and shady international business dealings into a political liability for Joe Biden’s campaign.
A steady drumbeat of such bombshell claims about Hunter over the years has embolden Biden critics, but admittedly has largely failed to gain significant traction within the general electorate so far.
Still, Lyons argues that Roberts’ behind-the-scenes perspective could provide new ammunition against Biden’s re-election at a crucial juncture, just as Hunter faces upcoming federal trials over alleged gun crimes and tax evasion charges.
“Out of the Shadows” promises an “inside look” at Biden’s struggles with drug and alcohol addiction that he has spoken about openly.
But Lyons is betting on Roberts’ unfiltered revelations packing more salacious punch than the president’s own son’s memoir.
For the Kennedy camp, even making marginal dents in Biden’s standing could boost the anti-vaccine advocate’s hopes of playing spoiler in a tight election rematch between his Democratic rival and likely Republican nominee, Trump.
While both major party frontrunners have dismissed Kennedy as an unacceptable option for their supporters, any bleeding of Democratic votes toward the famous Kennedy family heir could swing margins inside key battleground states.
That alignment of incentives is fueling the Kennedy/Skyhorse publicity blitz around the Hunter Biden book.
Of course, whether Roberts’ account actually contains enough explosive material to impact the election remains to be seen.
But the RFK Jr. team is clearly positioning it as a strategic surprise aimed at rattling the Biden campaign and Democratic coalition in the homestretch to Election Day.