Political and media pundits say NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker should address the Hunter Biden email saga head-on during Thursday’s presidential debate, Fox News reports.
Hunter Biden's former business partner on Thursday said emails that purportedly came from Biden's hard drive are legitimate and that Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, participated in his family's business deals with China and other foreign entities.
"This is a moment of truth for Kristen Welker and NBC News, in which they are caught between doing their job or protecting Joe Biden,'' Cornell Law School professor and media critic William Jacobson told Fox.
''To avoid or downplay the Biden family influence-peddling scandal would both create additional claims of media bias and eliminate Welker as a serious journalist," Jacobson added.
Fox News hours before the debate reported that the FBI’s subpoena of Hunter Biden’s laptop and hard drive came in connection with a money-laundering investigation in 2019.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox that Welker should ask about the Hunter Biden ''elephant in the room'' or she would open herself up to ''criticism that she's covering'' for the former VP.
''Not because of what Hunter might or might not have done, but because of what Joe Biden's role might have been, or at least his awareness of what Hunter might have been doing,'' McCall said.
''The mainstream media have steered away from this story, but the internet is churning it and it is surely on the minds of some voters," McCall continued. "This matter would fit surely into the category of leadership that Welker has on her topic list.''
Trump has pegged Welker as too partisan to be fair.
"Kristen Welker is terrible," he told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday. "She is totally partisan. Her father and mother are big supporters of Joe Biden. They’re supporters of the Democrat Party."
Conservative strategist Chris Barron said Welker ignoring the topic would be ''absolutely disgraceful.''
''There are emails that implicate Joe Biden and he has — to date — not denied that these emails are real and accurate,'' said Barron.
''President Trump was asked about QAnon. If the media thinks that’s relevant then clearly the Biden emails are,'' he added.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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