'Smells like Benghazi': Republicans notice Hunter Biden 'soap opera' not connecting with voters

Republicans have focused their agenda around exposing the so-called "Biden crime family" -- with hearings led by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and James Comer (R-TN) -- but they're starting to notice that's not really connecting with voters.

Donald Trump is pushing House Republicans to impeach President Joe Biden over alleged crimes committed by his son Hunter Biden, whose plea agreement fell apart Wednesday in a case involving tax and gun charges, but some GOP lawmakers and operatives want to tap the brakes on the matter, reported Politico.

“If anybody deserves to be impeached, I believe it’s Biden for what he has done," said Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), although he offered no specifics on those allegations. "At the same time, we’ve got to look to 2024 – we’ve got to get this White House back, we’ve got to get the Senate back.”

“If I was running for president," Williams added, "I would focus on what I can do for 2024 and get this economy going again.”

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David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, said polling conducted earlier this month found 69 percent of respondents believed the president should publicly acknowledge a 4-year-old granddaughter whom Hunter Biden initially denied fathering before reaching a child support settlement with her mother, while 63 percent said it was problematic that cocaine had been found in the White House.

“I was a little surprised it was that high,” McIntosh said, adding the questions on those topics had been "thrown in" just to "see what people say."

But McIntosh, who has publicly come out against Trump as he seeks re-election, doesn't think Republicans should center their message around Hunter Biden or the "Biden crime family," while the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee thinks candidates should focus on issues that matter to voters in their home district.

“I think when we get home, the focus is the economy, the border, crime,” said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), who leads that GOP group. “These are the issues that matter and these are the issues we’re talking about.”

Only one GOP presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, has spent any money on ads targeting Hunter Biden, and that was just $907 on a digital ad in late June, and just one national conservative group, Judicial Watch, did the same, spending less than $3,000 on a digital ad hitting the president's son.

“[It] just smells like Benghazi,” said GOP strategist Mike Madrid. “Republicans trying desperately to make a story. It’s always, ‘We’ve got a witness coming, we’ve got more coming.’ It’s always next week. It’s like a soap opera, ‘Tune in next week.’”

A poll from last month found half of Americans believe Hunter Biden received favorable treatment from federal prosecutors due to his father, but 60 percent -- including 59 percent of independents -- believe the president is being a "good father" for supporting his son through his legal problems.

“Do they look at Donald Trump, with nuclear codes, as worse than Joe Biden having a conversation with Burisma?” Madrid said. “Neither of them matter as much to independents as, ‘Does a woman have a right to abortion services?’ I just don’t think that these stories penetrate into public opinion the way that they used to. They really haven’t in modern times, since at least 1998.”