WASHINGTON — Former crack addict Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges in a Delaware court on Tuesday won’t have much of an impact on the reelection bid of his father, President Joe Biden.
In some ways, it may slightly help Biden.
Americans can see the contrast between how former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, has been reacting to his hush money jury conviction in a state court in Manhattan — he rants about how everyone and everything was rigged against him — and Biden’s acceptance of his son’s fate with grace.
President Biden respects the jury system. But as a father who has shown unlimited love for his troubled son, he must have found the guilty verdict incredibly painful.
Biden traveled to Wilmington to be with his son and the rest of his family Tuesday night.
Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict won’t change much for Trump and his team. They will continue, as they have for years, to go after Hunter and the president for being ringleaders of the “Biden Crime Family,” pushing unproven allegations of foreign payoffs.
How do I know this?
Because that’s what Trump and his allies said in their statements after the Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden for lying about his addiction in 2018 on a federal firearms background form and possessing a gun while on drugs.
I expect Trump to continue to attack Biden with the “crime family” line when they meet for the first 2024 debate on June 27 in Atlanta, hosted by CNN.
Why do I foresee this?
Because that’s what Trump did when he debated Biden on Sept. 29, 2020, in Cleveland. At that debate, Trump accused Hunter of making “a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow and various other places.” Trump and GOP allies have been digging into this for years.
At that 2020 debate, Biden talked about his son’s struggle with drugs. The president has, through the years, applauded his son for getting clean while worrying — according to reported accounts I have read — that his son may relapse.
It’s been well known that Hunter Biden was a selfish, risk-taking crack addict. He wrote in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things” that his “superpower” was “finding crack anytime, anywhere.”
That Hunter felt the need to write the book while his father was president — a public confessional about his buying illegal drugs across the nation — speaks to his self-indulgence.
The book is a how-to guide for obtaining crack in a city where you don’t know anyone. Hunter’s actions, according to his telling, stem from tragedies: the loss of his mother and sister in a 1972 car accident and the 2015 death of his brother Beau from brain cancer.
More takeaways:
The conviction gives Biden a shield: With Trump and his allies attacking the Justice Department for “weaponizing” prosecutions, you can’t ignore that Hunter Biden lost in a Wilmington, Delaware, federal court where he had the home field advantage as a member of Delaware political royalty.
Each day, the jury saw members of the Biden family, led by first lady Jill Biden, lovingly stand by her son. Still, the jury convicted.
Hunter Biden’s federal conviction can help shield President Biden from Trump assertions that Biden is manipulating the Justice Department.
Hunter factor baked in: One person connected to the Biden campaign told me that the Hunter factor is already baked into the cake, that the story of his addiction and terrible judgment is so well known that voters will not deny Biden a vote because of Hunter’s conviction.
Biden as consoler-in-chief: The Hunter Biden family saga also highlights one of the president’s strengths, his enormous ability to be empathetic, a consoler-in-chief. Voters with their own woes may relate.
Trump is the definition of apathy, the opposite of empathy.
Bottom line: Hunter is not the felon running for president. Trump is.
