An investigation into who left cocaine at the White House wound down this week with the Secret Service throwing up its hands in defeat having failed to identify the culprit. It brought President Biden's scandal-plagued son is back into the headlines, something that's become a regular occurrence. There was the laptop filled with pictures of Hunter smoking crack and having sex with prostitutes, then a sweetheart plea deal over tax evasion and a gun charge, and the daughter he fathered out of wedlock who he barred from using his name and whom his father, the President, refuses to acknowledge.
And then there was the phone call he made extorting a Chinese business partner while Joe Biden was vice president. "I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight," Hunter wrote.
How much of a liability is Hunter to his father's 2024 chances?
The Democrats like to cast Hunter as a distraction from his father's record. But they are deluding themselves. Hunter isn't just a liability due to his proximity to the President. He's proof of the double standard at the core of Biden's career, which might be summed up as, "For my friends, mercy; for my enemies, the law."
When Joe Biden says that millionaires all need to pair their fair share of taxes, why does that not apply to his own son, who managed to avoid jail time with a sweetheart plea deal on tax evasion? When Joe Biden talks about curbing gun violence and expanded background checks, why does that not apply to his own son, who lied on a federal background check form, and then with the assist from another Biden family member, discarded a hot firearm into a random trash can, all while blaming it on two Hispanic men?
When Joe Biden claims that America's kids belong to "all of us," why does that not apply to his own granddaughter? And when it comes to punishing thousands upon thousands of small drug users with hard, mass incarceration and undue prison sentences thanks to Joe Biden's role pushing the Crime Bill of 1995, why again does that not apply to cocaine being found by the Secret Service in his own home?
Some mainstream liberal columnists are starting to take note of the electoral challenge Hunter Biden poses, as someone who resides rent free at the White House, rides around on Air Force One, and attends State Dinners with his father's Attorney General, only days after cutting a sweet plea deal with that very same Department of Justice.
Just this week, the New York Times' Frank Bruni told Democrats and pundits in the media to take Hunter Biden's issues head on, writing that it's okay to talk about him and his struggles and not doing so poses risks to Biden's re-election. And his Maureen Dowd sounded off on President Biden's continued refusal to even acknowledge the existence of his seventh granddaughter, who was born out of a fling her mother had with Hunter and who Hunter has failed to provide child support to.
Indeed, Biden refusing to acknowledge his granddaughter cuts right to the heart of his carefully crafted image—a grandfatherly elder statesmen who believes that America's children are all of our kids.
All except one, it appears.
If liberal columnists at mainstream outlets are sounding the alarm on Hunter Biden, it's because they know he is a liability to his father's re-election chances, and he is. Joe Biden is not going to be able to hide in his home due to a global pandemic this time around. He's going to have to campaign, and when he does so, he will most likely have Hunter Biden at his side during his coming travels.
Hunter Biden isn't the only issue on the ballot for Joe Biden, and he's certainly not a primary focus what with the current stagflation, our foreign conflicts, Biden's age and declining mental acuity, and a historically unpopular vice president who could very well see herself being sworn into the presidency during Biden's second term.
Yet Hunter Biden is mirror held up to Joe Biden's own policies, and how he has spent his life making an exception for his own family members while harshly punishing those with much less power.
What Hunter Biden says to the country is that every single policy that Joe Biden has pushed throughout his political career and presidency does not apply to himself or his own family. In that regard, Hunter Biden is on the ballot, and very much deservedly so.
Stephen L. Miller has written for National Review, The Spectator, the New York Post and Fox News, and hosts the independent podcast Versus Media on Substack.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
