Joe Biden and his family jetted off Saturday post-DNC after the former VP gave a speech there Monday to Santa Ynez, California for a vacation on Joe Kiani’s ranch-style estate.
The relationship between Biden and Kiani, who House Republicans have criticized for donating nearly $3 million to a super PAC supporting the vice president as well as his foundation and inaugural committee.
In September 2021, Kiani was named by President Joe Biden to his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology advising the federal government on matters that affected policy like those driving Masimo. Republican sources said that since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 the family has obtained close to $3 million in federal contracts for Masimo.
Biden also hosted Kiani as a guest at his state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022. The Post said Kiani, a CEO and billionaire himself, had been given access to trans-Atlantic business tycoons and other global stars at the dinner.
It comes as Democrats prepare to take over the presidency with an ambitious plan for revamping the Supreme Court, that would include imposing a binding code of ethics on justices and imposings-term limits. Many of these were spurred by questions about Justice Clarence Thomas’s connection with Republican Party donor Harlan Crow.
Michael Chamberlain of the conservative nonprofit Protect the Public’s Trust said he was concerned by what he called “further examples that demonstrate why a blind trust is better than so-called recusal.”
In April 2022, a dozen House Republicans wrote to Shalanda Young, director of the federal government’s Office of Management and Budget — which Kiani says solicited his donations while Biden was president – expressing concerns about both Biden-Kiani links and potential political donation-based influence in awarding government contracts or loans.
The former vice president’s ties to other leading Democratic contributors have also been questioned. Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer hosted the Biden family for a year at his Lake Tahoe mansion. The Inflation Reduction Act authorizes spending to combat climate change, and Steyer operates a green energy investment fund.
A conservative nonprofit group, the Center for Renewing America, filed an ethics complaint with the Department of Justice in April calling on authorities to investigate Biden over what it says is a ‘pattern and practice’ that violates his legal obligation to disclose several vacations that do not fit within certain exemptions outlined by the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA). One of the holidays mentioned in the complaint is a trip to Lake Tahoe by members of Joe Biden’s family.
The complaint names other vacations as ski trips to the South Carolina beachfront mansion of democratic donor Maria Allwin, a stay at private equity founder David Rubenstein’s Nantucket home and a New Year trip to Bill Neville-owned U.S. Virgin Islands island with his wife Connie.
Kendra Arnold, executive director of the conservative non-profit Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust criticized Biden’s visit to Kiani’s estate saying that it “reinforces the popular notion that individuals who give large amounts of money to politicians are rewarded with increased access and various perks that are unavailable to others.”
“When, like is the case here, there is an apparent circular beneficial relationship, it is difficult to believe that, at a minimum, there has not been increased access granted,” Arnold concluded. “As a rule of thumb, our elected officials are encouraged to even avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, and, in this case, President Biden has certainly fallen short.”
