Critics from the conservative side have raised concerns that Joe Biden deliberately withheld information about the demise of the Titan submersible in order to divert public attention away from recent developments involving his son, Hunter. The U.S. Navy’s potential detection of the submersible’s implosion on Sunday has fueled these suspicions.
Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday that a deep-sea robot involved in the search for the submersible, which was en route to explore the wreckage of the Titanic with five crew members, discovered a debris field suggesting a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber near the last known communication location.
This confirmation solidified the worst-case scenario, indicating that the Titan imploded due to the immense pressure of the surrounding sea, estimated to be around 400 bar.
Coinciding with this revelation, The Wall Street Journal reported that a top-secret U.S. Navy detection system for identifying enemy submarines had detected an “anomaly” around the time the submersible was believed to have imploded. This information was later shared with the search and rescue team. However, some conservatives have put forth a conspiracy theory suggesting that the government was aware of the implosion but chose to keep it hidden to distract from the whistleblower testimony on Hunter Biden.
Prominent conservative activist and commentator Jack Posobiec tweeted, “The WSJ is reporting the U.S. Navy detected the Titan implosion on Sunday, but Biden held the news until today’s whistleblower testimony on Hunter. The entire thing was a distraction op.” This tweet gained significant traction, reaching 5.9 million views by 4 a.m. ET Friday. It is important to note that The Wall Street Journal did not make any claims about Biden withholding the news.
Graham Allen, host of the Dear America podcast and a contributor to Turning Point U.S.A., expressed his astonishment, exclaiming, “BIDEN KNEW the U.S. Navy detected the Titan implosion on Sunday, but he held the news until today’s whistleblower testimony on his crackhead son Hunter?! The whole thing was to distract us?!”
Another right-wing Twitter account with considerable engagement suggested, “The Biden regime knew the submarine [sic] imploded Sunday—but used their media propagandists to push the ‘they’re running out of oxygen’ story all week to deflect from Hunter’s [alleged] crimes?” While some social media users appeared supportive of this theory, others remained skeptical, pointing out that the search and rescue operation operated under the assumption that the crew was alive until conclusive evidence suggested otherwise.
The Titan was equipped with a 96-hour oxygen supply, estimated to have depleted on Thursday morning according to the U.S. Coast Guard. While the search team raced against time to locate the missing submersible, the U.S. Navy confirmed that it had “detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost.”
The submersible ceased responding approximately one hour and 45 minutes into its descent on Sunday morning. On Thursday, a debris field was discovered around 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreck. The Navy clarified that the acoustic anomaly, although not definitive, was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to aid in the ongoing search and rescue mission.
During a press conference, Rear Admiral Mauger acknowledged the complexity of the case in a remote oceanic location and pledged to gather as much information as possible regarding the incident. Meanwhile, on the same day, the House Ways and Means Committee released whistleblower Gary Shapley’s May 26 testimony. In his deposition, Shapley accused Hunter Biden of leveraging his father’s political influence to pressure a Chinese official. Neither Joe Biden nor Hunter Biden have publicly commented on this testimony.
These events unfolded in the midst of House Republicans’ commitment to investigating the Biden family’s business dealings abroad, including allegations of Joe Biden using his position as vice president to exert influence over those endeavors.
Earlier in the week, the Department of Justice charged Hunter Biden with failure to pay income tax and illegal possession of a weapon. In an agreement reached with prosecutors, Hunter pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax offense while avoiding an additional charge, provided he adheres to court-imposed conditions.
