Hunter –The Felon– Biden: Not Running for President

Reactions to the verdict tell the real story

A jury in Delaware has found Hunter Biden guilty on three separate criminal charges related to his purchase of a revolver from a gun shop in Wilmington six years ago.

He stands convicted of lying on one item on the eight page required prior to purchasing a .38 revolver from a Wilmington gun shop six years ago. He checked a box on ATF Form 4473 indicating that he wasn’t a user of illegal drugs. The man also is guilty of making a false statement by telling the gun dealer the same lie, and by possessing a gun while addicted to drugs.

Hunter Biden, son of incumbent president Joe Biden, did something illegal. The jury says so. The prosecution quoted liberally from the defendant’s 2021 memoir, using his own words to make the case. 

These felonious offenses occurred in 2018. His father was not an elected official at the time. There is no evidence that the elder Biden knew about the gun, or participated in any way in its acquisition.

The younger Biden, a Yale-educated lawyer, has admitted to having drug problems. He has purportedly involved himself in shady dealings by trading on his dad’s celebrity. There is no evidence his father even knew what was going on.

President Biden hasn’t tweeted once about his son’s “sham verdict.” He hasn’t attacked the judge or the jury, hasn’t called it a hoax, or vowed retribution. He’s not even standing outside the courtroom with stacks of printed-out articles from fake lawyers. 

It’s almost as if he understands that we are a nation of laws or something and that the justice system works the way it’s intended to, even if he doesn’t like the outcome. Crazy stuff.

Joe Biden didn’t stop loving his son and encouraged him to seek treatment. Also, Hunter has never evidenced any interest in running for office.

The current president, the career politician, bested then-incumbent Donald Trump in 2020 by seven million popular and 74 electoral votes.

Trump, in case you haven’t noticed. Is a sore loser. Despite losing over a hundred cases in assorted courts challenging parts of the electoral process; despite the failure of a riotous mob failing to stop tabulation of the electoral vote in Congress; despite having his associates indicted and/or convicted in connection with election malfeasance, the man continues to this day to insist his loss was via illegal activities by his opponent.

Trying to tie any activities between the President and his son has become a cottage industry for the Republican Party and its leader.

Via the Independent:

• One ex-Trump administration aide has spent much of the last four years publishing increasingly bizarre streams of content from a copy of the hard drive he obtained. Republicans in Congress have also spent much of the last two years mining through Hunter’s stolen data in hopes of finding any way to credibly accuse his father of anything that would justify impeaching him to repay Democrats for the two righteous cases they brought against Trump during his tumultuous quadrennium in the White House.

• The only real effect the GOP-led probe’s focus on Hunter had was in pressuring a Trump-appointed judge to throw out a plea deal he’d reached to avoid this trial because it would have precluded the government from trying him on charges that he’d violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act — despite little evidence outside the fever swamps that’d ever violated that law.

• After the deal fell apart, the Trump-appointed prosecutor who’d been pursuing Hunter got appointed to a special counsel role, letting him bring a second set of charges against him for alleged tax law violations in California.

The president’s son could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000 at sentencing, though he likely will receive far less than the maximum as a first-time offender. The judge said a sentencing is usually set for 120 days following a verdict, which would put it three weeks before election day.

Let's take a look around and see how the major players are reacting to Hunter’s guilty verdict.

The President:

• In the brief statement, the president underscored his pride in his son for overcoming his battle with addiction. 

• “As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today. So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery,” Biden said. 

• He added, “As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

• Biden has previously affirmed he will not pardon his son.

Team Trump, via Katie Rogers of the New York Times:

• If anyone was wondering how Republicans would react to the verdict, here’s a preview from Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Donald J. Trump: “DOJ is running election interference for Joe Biden — that’s why DOJ did NOT charge Hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (FARA) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. Why? Because all the evidence would lead back to JOE,” he wrote on X, reviving an attack line that Republicans have used, so far unsuccessfully, to try to link father and son’s finances. Even though Hunter Biden was convicted of all three counts, Republicans are gearing up to say he was convicted of the wrong crimes.

Donald Trump’s campaign Via CNN:

• The Trump campaign targeted President Joe Biden in a statement as it responded to Hunter Biden's conviction.

• In the initial statement obtained by CNN, the campaign wrote, "This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit. As for Hunter, we wish him well in his recovery and legal affairs."

• The Trump campaign then sent an updated statement, striking the well wishes to Hunter. 

• Fact Check: There is no evidence Joe Biden has received large sums of money from China or has otherwise gained wealth as a result of his son's business dealings abroad. 

Hunter Biden, via ABC News

• Hunter Biden said in a statement after the verdict that he's "more grateful today for the love and support I experienced this last week from Melissa, my family, my friends, and my community than I am disappointed by the outcome," referencing his wife Melissa Cohen Biden.

• "Recovery is possible by the grace of God, and I am blessed to experience that gift one day at a time," he said.

• Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement, "We are naturally disappointed by today's verdict. We respect the jury process, and as we have done throughout this case, we will continue to vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter."

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Hunter Biden’s travails are not over. He faces another trial in September stemming from omissions on his income taxes. (He’s already paid the back taxes & penalties owed, so I doubt Stephen Miller will feel motivated to call for the death penalty.)

The press coverage of the Hunter Biden verdict tells us exactly why MAGA loyalists trumpeted this case, it’s been non stop “both sides-ing” as if Trump being convicted of 34 felonies is the equivalent of a non elected President’s son being convicted of 3. 

Come the general election in November, there is only one name on the ballot that has been convicted by a jury of his peers of a crime and that’s Donald J. Trump.

Postscript: Here’s a snip from a New York Times Op-ed by Patti Davis, daughter of President Ronald Reagan:

• It might sound naïve in these scathingly partisan times, but it would be nice if the rest of us — or even most of us — could look at how sad this story is. How a man with a loving, supportive family and every advantage and opportunity still fell into the roiling abyss of drug addiction and couldn’t stop swimming around in its dark waters. How even though he has worked hard on getting and staying clean, his past mistakes and sins follow him, collide with him and demand to be addressed. They are still today racking up collateral damage, causing tremendous pain to those he loves and who love him, even potentially endangering his father’s legacy.

• There are a lot of Hunter Bidens in this world, people who fell in way over their heads, who long for someone to believe they can recover and construct their lives differently. You just don’t hear about them on the evening news.

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Tuesday’s Other News to Think About

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The Monsters in America’s Kitchen by Kelly Mayhew at The Jumping Off Place (Review of Food, Inc. 2)

• The film then goes into the dangers of monopolies by noting the scaling back of antitrust legislation enforcement beginning in 1980, which enabled food companies to gobble up their competitors and grow into the massive entities we see today. Eye poppingly, for example, 85% of meat is produced by only four companies, 83% of breakfast cereal comes from three companies, 70% of soda is produced by 3 three companies, and, as we discovered, just two companies produce 80% of baby formula.

• Why is all this consolidation a problem? As we saw with the formula shortages of a couple of years ago, when so few companies corner the market, if there’s a supply chain issue, people suffer because they can’t get what they need. Also, without competition, prices are higher (as are profits of course) and wages are lower. But this system is weak and prone to getting out of control in order to constantly maximize profits.

• When there are feedlots in the desert so companies can fatten as many cattle as possible, that creates an environmental catastrophe (not to mention a terrible situation for the animals awaiting slaughter). But, as Pollan puts it, this system is designed to put “profits over sustainability.”

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How is sentence for admitted killer defensible? Letters to Union Tribune Editor, by Christopher Britton (h/t @ Rockmedia)

• Re “Gunman sentenced to prison for killing Serra Mesa homeless woman in ‘hobo hunting’ case” (June 6): William Innes got a five-year, eight-month kiss from local prosecutors for killing by torture a frail, harmless old woman while out “hobo hunting.”

• He repeatedly shot her as she lay helpless. He pleaded guilty to “involuntary manslaughter.” How is this not some degree of murder? In Colorado, a teenager got a 20-year sentence for killing a woman by throwing a rock at her car. In San Diego, Innes gets 14 years less for conduct even more malicious.

• Plea bargains are supposed to benefit both sides. What possible benefit did the county District Attorney’s Office get out of this sweetheart deal? The people of San Diego have been bargained out of justice. Innes should go to prison and never come back.

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Elephants call each other by name, study finds via The Guardian

• Adults were also more likely to use names than calves, suggesting it could take years to learn this particular talent.

• The most common call was “a harmonically rich, low-frequency sound”, according to the study in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

• When the researchers played a recording to an elephant of their friend or family member calling out their name, the animal responded positively and “energetically”, the researchers said.

• But the same elephant was far less enthusiastic when played the names of others.