There are two ways to view the Hunter Biden investigation and the growing number of reports about it including the New York Times and the Washington Post signing off on the infamous laptop.

1. They’re preparing the ground for exculpating Hunter

2. They’re preparing the ground for forcing out Joe Biden

The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are political interests that want Biden gone, some maybe even at any cost, and others who are more loyal, and a larger middle group of media types who could be persuaded either way. 

The majority of the media stories, including the Post and Times ones, were arguably preparing the ground for giving Hunter a pass. This one is different. Yes, it’s from Yahoo News, but it’s also from Michael Isikoff. He’s as much of a media insider in the political world as you get and was a key player in Russiagate. Fusion GPS briefed him on the Steele smears and then used a story he wrote based on it as supporting evidence for a FISA warrant.

So when Isikoff writes an article like this, it’s a message. And it’s a hell of a message.

But there are indications that Hunter Biden had good reason to suspect the Chinese intelligence connections of Ho and Ye. In a May 11, 2018, audio recording of a conversation with an unidentified woman found on the laptop, a copy of which has been obtained by Yahoo News, Hunter Biden complained about getting a phone call from a New York Times reporter asking about his representation of Ho. He is “literally the f***ing spy chief of China,” Biden says to the woman, clearly overstating Ho’s role. (It is unclear why the conversation, which was recorded by the woman, was on the laptop.)

In the same conversation, Biden also talked about phone calls he had gotten from his father about media inquiries into his business affairs.

This is playing with dynamite because it emphasizes the Chinese intelligence links and the Biden family. 

None of the details about Hunter and James Biden’s business dealings with Chinese interests implicate President Biden in any wrongdoing. But the depth and breadth of the Bidens’ financial ties with Ho and Ye raise new questions as to whether they were targets of a Chinese influence operation that, separate and apart from an ongoing criminal probe into Hunter Biden for alleged tax fraud and potentially foreign lobbying violations, represents a counterintelligence threat.

Why start making these connections if you don’t want to shove Joe Biden toward the exit?

The 25th Amendment stuff has always been a fantasy or trolling. No one wants Biden to make way for Kamala anyway. What they want is for him to agree not to run for a second term. Since that’s a few years away, the hard sell isn’t here yet, but if you want to make out the shape of what that could look like, it would be an ongoing investigation of Biden family members combined with more allegations and pressure on the big guy.