OPINION:
Our national news media have spent years shielding Hunter Biden from criticism, but now we’re supposed to believe them when they say he’s being punished enough?
It’s not a convincing argument when we can all see the sweet plea deal he just got from federal prosecutors, but it’s not the most important point anyway.
What matters a whole lot more are the things we learned from Hunter’s laptop that implicate his father, President Biden, in the family business of selling influence to foreign businessmen around the world.
Don’t get me wrong. The charges and the probability that Hunter will stay out of jail are a ridiculous indictment of the American legal system today.
If you, too, are the son of the president of the United States, you can lie on a gun application and dodge your taxes and pretty much get away with it.
In Hunter’s case, he will go into pretrial diversion on the gun charge and plead guilty to two measly misdemeanors for tax evasion.
And if you are Hunter Biden, you will enjoy the protection of the media, who will insist that you’re not being treated differently than anyone else.
Tell that to the rapper Kodak Black, who got three years from the feds after he lied on a gun application.
Yet the media are insistent.
“This is not a sweetheart deal,” CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers said.
On ABC’s “The View,” Sunny Hostin said that the deal, which includes no real punishment, “shows that no one is above the law, which is important, not even the president’s son.”
Back at CNN, senior political analyst John Avlon was proud of the Department of Justice for really throwing the book at Hunter.
“The fact that the son of the president was investigated by the government, and charged, is actually evidence that no one is above the law in America,” he said. “That is a good thing.”
And The New York Times focused on how his son’s legal situation is affecting the president, choosing to quote a former spokesman for first lady Jill Biden, who said, “Every smear, attack, conspiracy and lie about their son is painful and never gets old.”
So, do you understand all of that? According to the media, Hunter Biden is being punished severely for his crimes, even though he won’t go to prison, but it’s all a bunch of made-up lies anyway. Got it?
If it’s all smears, attacks, conspiracies and lies, they all ought to be squawking about wrongful prosecution, right?
But they won’t complain because it’s all performative on the part of the media. They are clearly taking the opportunity to say, “Justice has been done, case closed,” on the whole Hunter Biden saga.
They want to shuffle it off to history because they know that none of this is the really important stuff that involves Hunter and his dad.
When Hunter’s laptop computer surfaced during the 2020 presidential campaign, corporate news organizations and social media giants tried to prevent people from hearing about it by refusing to cover it and banning the dissemination of stories from those who did.
But what the contents of the laptop told us is that the Biden family patriarch is likely deeply corrupted by the efforts of his relatives to sell access to him to foreign interests.
It showed that Mr. Biden knew about, approved of, and probably personally benefited from the financial arrangements made by his relatives, including Hunter.
A former business partner of theirs, Tony Bobulinski, even came forward to say he was there when some of the deals were discussed, including times when the elder Mr. Biden was present.
Mr. Bobulinski confirmed that now-President Biden was “the big guy,” as referenced in one email discovered on the hard drive, who was to receive 10% of the value of a deal with a Chinese energy company.
In other documents, it was demonstrated that Hunter Biden and his father shared bank accounts, meaning that they both had access to the millions Hunter was being paid by foreign interests. They also appeared to pay each other’s bills, while Hunter once complained that his father was sucking up half of his cash.
“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter texted to his daughter in 2019. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
Understanding all of that, it makes perfect sense that the media, which steadfastly side with anyone named Biden, would be eager for this book to end.
But if there is any true justice, the story is not anywhere close to being over.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and vice president for communication strategy at National Public Affairs, a political consulting firm.
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