Left: President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks to employees and guests Thursday, June 25, 2020, at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour) Right: Hunter Biden looks on as his father, Joe Biden, takes the oath of office on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
Who’d You Throw in Jail?
At the Spectator, columnist and deputy editor Freddy Gray invites readers to play a game. This one is called Pick the Real Criminal. “Come on,” invites Mr. Gray, promising readers it will be fun.
On the one hand, we have a seventy-seven-year-old man, a former president and a billionaire, whose Gollum-like greed caused him to hoard various boxes of classified documents which he should have returned to the proper authorities. He, or his associates, also fudged various business records possibly to cover up “hush money” payments he made to a porn star. Oh, and he had a massive tantrum about losing an election, tried to overturn the result and his shenanigans caused some of his supporters to breach the Capitol building in Washington on January 6, 2021.
On the other, we have a fifty-three-year-old man, the multi-millionaire son of a president, a recovering crack addict with a fondness for prostitutes, waving guns around, sleeping with his late brother’s widow and making amateur pornography. He used his father’s name and political influence to launch an investment fund that cut deals with shady foreign actors — possibly enriching his father, the then vice-president, in the process. He also got absurdly well-paid for sitting on the board of a Ukrainian energy company at a time when daddy was supposed to be conducting American diplomacy in the country. After falling from grace, he reinvented himself as a painter and now flogs his godawful paintings to unknown buyers for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Freddy is not so naïve as to think the answers will be anything but along the lines of the contestants’ political leanings.
(Many) Democrats and independents believe that Trump is a direct threat to democracy and therefore locking him up is in the national interest.
At the same time, plenty of Republicans and independents think it highly suspicious that Hunter Biden seems to have just escaped with the judicial equivalent of a slap on the wrist — despite the fact he appears to be guilty of quite serious criminality.
Whataboutery
When Trump supporters yell “double standard,” it’s easy to see their point.
Last week, the Department of Justice issued thirty-seven federal charges against Donald Trump for his having held on to state secrets. The majority of the charges relate to the Espionage Act, any one of which could mean Trump spends the rest of his life in jail. Hunter will almost certainly escape incarceration.
A lot of voters will look at Joe Biden and his errant son and feel only compassion. “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,” says the Old Testament. “Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.” Moreover, the New Testament parable of the prodigal son and the redemptive power of a father’s love still holds sway over American hearts and minds.
Justice Is Supposed to Be Blind, not Empathetic
And yes, continues Freddy, it stinks that “Hunter appears to be getting off so lightly, probably because his father happens to be in charge of the Department of Justice.”
Any other American found guilty of similar crimes could expect a stint behind bars. The excessive clemency for Hunter, and his mysterious new career rebirth as an extremely successful artist, bring to mind the nepotism of the Chinese Communist Party, where the progeny of senior apparatchiks can do whatever they want, consequence free. That runs directly counter to the spirit of the US constitution, which grants all citizens equal protection under the law.
More than Malarky
When accusers accuse dear Joe of taking “substantial kickbacks for selling out America’s interests abroad,” President Joe Biden likes to yell his favorite word: “Malarky.” But Freddy writes, “it’s more than that.”
Bank wire records, published by the House Oversight Committee, show a $3 million payment made to a Biden family associate from a Chinese entity just three months after Joe Biden stood down as vice president in 2017.
Does Joe Biden think that Hunter’s plea arrangement might make this highly intriguing story simply go away? Not likely, offers Freddy.
The more telling question is: will most journalists continue to treat the Biden corruption allegations as a Republican tactic to distract from the many charges against Donald Trump? Or, as Republicans “follow the money,” will the evidence become too strong for the majority to ignore? The answer to that could decide whether Joe Biden is still president by the start of the 2025.
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