By Noah Rothman
Friday, May 24, 2024
You might remember the fracas that erupted last year when Hunter Biden, son
of the president, appeared at a state dinner for Indian prime minister Narendra
Modi just two days after a sweetheart plea agreement with the Justice
Department imploded in spectacular fashion.
The disintegration of that plea agreement all but ensured
that the president’s son would face prosecution for two misdemeanor offenses
involving tax evasion and one felony gun charge. That, and the fact that
Hunter’s presence at the dinner compelled Attorney General Merrick Garland to
maintain a comically wide berth from the alleged offender in attendance, cast a
pall of sordidness over the affair. Even if Hunter Biden cannot be expected to
observe the kind of propriety that might have compelled him to stay home that
night, his father should have summoned the good judgment necessary to keep him
away.
Apparently, no lessons were learned from that episode.
The very same thing happened again last night, at a state
dinner for Kenyan president William Samoei Ruto, where the president was joined
by Hunter as well as his administration’s chief law-enforcement officer, who is
nominally overseeing the president’s son’s prosecution. Hunter was also present
for a Rose Garden event earlier this week for a White House Jewish Heritage
celebration, though he was careful to avoid photographers.
As many observers have noted, it should not be hard to
acknowledge the powerful emotional inducements that have led Biden to ignore
the political optics of his evident closeness to his only surviving son. Some
things are more important than politics — family perhaps foremost among them.
But if the president wanted to be liberated from the demands of public life, he
should have withdrawn from it. Joe Biden is not immune from the consequences of
his own unsound judgment. And those consequences could be quite real if the
president insists on keeping his son close when Hunter’s trials begin next
month.
The president and the first lady seem set on doing just
that. Although there are “no formal plans for the White House or the 2024 team
to mount a rapid response operation during Hunter Biden’s legal
proceedings,” NBC News reported, the president’s advisers understand that
Hunter’s trial exposes his father to political jeopardy.
Biden, who will be traveling
overseas during a portion of the trial, will be monitoring it foremost as a
concerned parent, not as an incumbent seeking re-election during a critical
stretch of the campaign, according to three people familiar with the president’s
thinking. His advisers will be watching, in part, for any instances where the
president is referenced during the proceedings, and they plan to decide on a
case-by-case basis whether to react in real time, according to two people
familiar with the plans.
That potential for political peril is only compounded by
the degree to which the president feels emotionally compelled to keep his son
close. The Biden reelection team will face perils in coping with evidence that
his administration put its thumb on the scales of justice to safeguard Hunter
against the legal repercussions associated with his actions.
As James Lynch reported yesterday, IRS whistleblower Gary
Shapley provided the House Ways and Means Committee this week with testimony
alleging that the CIA was involved in a scheme designed to shield Hunter from
prosecution for tax violations. In addition, his former colleague and fellow
whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, turned over documents — including text messages
— that purport to undermine the veracity of testimony Hunter gave to
congressional investigators and further enmesh his father in his son’s seedy
dealings. “The new text messages appear to corroborate an extensive collection
of evidence and testimony indicating that Joe Biden was at the very least
tangentially involved in Hunter’s influence-peddling schemes,” Lynch’s report read.
At the very least, prudence would dictate that the
president should maintain an arm’s-length relationship with his son while the
administration he leads is attempting to convict Hunter of criminal offenses.
That is a level of detachment Joe Biden seems incapable of achieving. While the
president’s contempt for the conditions that should keep him and his son apart
is perfectly understandable, it’s not just Biden’s family in the balance. The
president’s indifference to the politics of his family’s legal drama could
become detrimental to the Democratic Party’s prospects in November. Democrats
would be wise to ask themselves today, while they can still do something about
it, if their investment in Biden’s political successes is reciprocal.
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