The Irony of Hunter
We have all just heard about the conviction of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. This has been a long saga that really began in the middle of Trump’s presidency. Republicans and Democrats alike were screwing around in Ukraine in between the first assault on that sovereign nation in Crimea by Putin’s Russia in 2014 and their more recent and more widespread incursion into the eastern third of Ukraine in 2022. Yes, Hunter was mucking about in Ukraine in ways that we all wish a president’s son or relative would not, but as they sway, its a free country and who could stop Billy Carter from marketing Billy Beer or from Ronald Reagan’s son Ron from proselytizing about atheism. So, Hunter was a desperate underachieving addict who suffered greatly from an apparent inferiority complex being both the son of a very successful national politician and the younger son of a decorated and now deceased war hero. The angst he must feel is almost palpable. What is equally palpable is the pain that the close-knit Biden family must feel about their sweet boy going through such life machinations and having his every peccadillo justifiably or unjustifiably broadcast to the world like the paparazzi flailings around Princess Diana…except without the love.
When I saw the scene of Joe Biden getting off his plane in Delaware, flying in specifically to be with and lend comfort to his son, who had just been convicted in his gun case, I thought that was a quintessentially human moment. Think about it. Trump comes out of the Manhattan courthouse after his conviction and other than his spineless son Eric standing well behind him so as not to steal any of his free courthouse publicity, Trump stood alone with a worried scowl on his face (intended to remind people that he is the same tough guy who sold millions of t-shirts with his Fulton County mug shot on it). He raised his fist and repeated the word “rigged” a dozen times and slumped off to his limousine with his Secret Service detail. Was their any family embrace? Where was Melania? Where were Ivanka and Jerrod? Were there any family tears shed over Donald’s tragic circumstance? I don’t think so. There was no humanity in evidence in the Trump situation where there was an abundance of it with Hunter.
Legal theorist have been having a field day for several years now about how Trump and his cronies can best avert accountability for their misdeeds. We all know that the delay tactics on his federal and Fulton County cases are strategically engineered so that prosecution can be waylaid, forestalled and, most likely completely averted. And then there is the added safety net of the somewhat unconstrained and omnipotent power of the presidency to pardon anyone who might assist or perjure themselves in the service of helping him avoid justice. Hell, we have even publicly debated the ability of a president to self-pardon his way out of any jam he made or makes for himself.
I do not know how thinking and feeling people, especially people of faith who say they care so much about spirituality and family, can watch this show and not feel for the Bidens. No one denies that Hunter had a serious addiction problem. No one can say that Joe Biden is not a caring and loving father and that he loves his son Hunter. When Joe flew to Delaware to meet and hug Hunter on the tarmac for the long-distance cameras to catch the otherwise private moment, there was nothing put on for the crowds with that. Have you ever seen Trump have a personal moment that made you think he has any concerns for anyone, including his own children? Trump doesn’t know how not to play to the crowds and Biden doesn’t know how to be anything but genuine.
Of course, we all know that in order to attempt to undermine any stain on Trump for his criminal conviction, just as he did with the Big Lie about the election, Trump has done and is prepared to undermine any aspect of our American institutional fabric in order to keep his image in tact. He has clearly ordered his Republican sycophants to get out in front of the cameras and spew lies about the Biden administration having fashioned a weapon out of its Justice Department specifically to undermine Trump’s electoral prospects in November. The Justice System be damned. One of their only party platforms at this point is that they need to defang the Biden Justice System. Of course, Trump can’t help himself but to mention that he wants payback and retribution for which he plans to undoubtedly use the Justice System as he chooses to refashion it.
Meanwhile, on the very day that Joe Biden has to face the reality of his surviving son, Hunter, having been indicted and facing accountability in one form or another for his crime (the crime of buying a gun while addicted to drugs…a perfectly reasonable law that he clearly violated). This is where the irony starts to run very thick. Republicans, who, as huge supporters on the NRA agenda, want no restrictions on gun ownership whatsoever. So they should want for Hunter to be acquitted not just because it keeps gun ownership more sacrosanct, but also because his acquittal would play best into their election narrative that the Biden Justice Department is running a rigged game both against Trump and his followers, but also in favor of their team, especially members of what they like to call the Biden Crime Family. Well, at least now Joe Biden will come out railing about the bad verdict and the fact that his poor boy, Hunter, was being persecuted by Republicans and that he is unjustly being judged. Furthermore, he will certainly use his unlimited power of the pardon to pardon his own son, right? Wrong. Instead, Joe Biden has said he accepts the verdict as delivered and will accept the sentence no matter how much it pains him as a father. He has furthermore said unequivocally that he will not be pardoning his son. Furthermore, even Hunter, who has no reason not to speak his mind, politically or otherwise, has chosen to hold his tongue and not put on any of the theatrics of victimization that Trump so very much enjoys and employs.
This display of family tragedy, support, love and acceptance of accountability, combined with the character to not succumb to the power of the position in the most dire of situations, should feel pretty heartfelt to Americans. Joe Biden is the Everyman that Americans usually like. He is the man of faith that the nation usually endorses. He is a real family man, not one who jokes about how pretty his kids are. He has performed during his presidency so effectively that no one who is honest and objective about economics and foreign affairs should be unhappy. But more than anything, Joe Biden has once again shown America the type of man he is and where his priorities lie. He puts America first in a way that Trump would liken to being like a sucker. I am left to just shake my head and wonder what has changed in America that they cannot see and feel the irony of Hunter than is staring us in the face.