Hunter Biden, the controversial son of President Biden, announced he would pled guilty to two federal charges of tax fraud and a felony charge of gun possession last Tuesday, and that evening’s taxpayer-funded PBS News Hour proved itself eager to move along, dismissing Republican accusations of a cushy plea deal from his father’s Department of Justice, appealing to emotion by painting the President as a distraught father who deserves sympathy, not suspicion of possibly benefiting from his son’s sordid business undertakings in China and Ukraine, even suggesting Hunter's plea deal was "somewhat harsher" than usual.
Host Geoff Bennett claimed that “the deal promises a potential end to Hunter Biden's ongoing legal saga. But the political drama is far from over."
Guest Carrie Johnson, justice correspondent of National Public Radio, made excuses during her explanation of the probe:
Johnson: ….This covers a period in Hunter Biden's life when he was in the throes of drug addiction and making a lot of poor decisions in his life, including decisions about his finances, which came home to roost today with this plea agreement.
Host Bennett ran a soundbite of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy complaining of “the two-tier system in America. If you are the president's leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. If you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
Johnson tried to deny favoritism was shown to the president’s son, even suggesting Hunter was treated more harshly that he should have been.
Johnson: ….it's also fairly unusual to bring an unlawful possession of a weapons charged by someone addicted to drugs, absent some pattern of violence or other pattern of lawbreaking. So if you look at the record, and you consider what the Supreme Court did last year in upending the system of gun regulation in this country, allies of Hunter Biden and former prosecutors suggest that this plea deal is actually somewhat harsher on Hunter Biden than it might be on someone else with his background and pattern of conduct. Rather than being an unduly favorable plea deal, it actually could be somewhat harsher, in part because of who his and the political environment we currently face.
Yet, Hunter Biden himself admitted in his memoir that he was addicted to narcotics during the time in which he had purchased the gun.
The general lack of curiosity around Hunter’s scandals looks doubly bad now, with text messages recently released in a whistleblower report, claiming that Hunter Biden sent WhatsApp messages to a Chinese businessman in 2017, claiming to be sitting with his father, the then-VP and current President, waiting for a response to his business proposal.
Host Bennett played for sympathy, saying "….Hunter Biden is 53 years old. Addiction has haunted him for much of his life. What was happening with him during this period that was subject to this DOJ investigation?"
Adam Entous of the New York Times emphasized Hunter’s personal pain as an alcoholic who’d lost his supportive brother Beau.
Entous: ….And so the tax charges and the gun issue are all at the -- at this -- really this terrible moment, when he basically can't keep track of anything in his life.
Later, Entous sounded overly credulous regarding President Biden’s lack of knowledge of what his son was doing, claiming “there's sort of like this rule in the [Biden] family….where they would not talk about business with Joe, who was a senator. That was just sort of the family rule. And so Hunter wouldn't tell his dad about what he was doing,” leaving his father to find out via news clips: “And that was it. I mean, there was no more discussion about it.”
The media certainly hopes that “that” is indeed “it,” as far as the threat Hunter Biden presents to his father’s presidency.
A transcript is available, click "Expand" to read:
PBS NewsHour
June 20, 2023
7:03:13 p.m. (ET)
Geoff Bennett: Hunter Biden is set to plead guilty to a pair of federal misdemeanor charges for failing to pay his taxes. The agreement also calls for him to admit to felony gun possession. He won't face prosecution, so long as he remains drug-free for two years and doesn't commit additional crimes.
The deal promises a potential end to Hunter Biden's ongoing legal saga. But the political drama is far from over.
To tackle the legal and political implications, we welcome in NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, and Adam Entous, an investigative correspondent for The New York Times. Thank you both for being with us. And, Carrie, this investigation was in the works for five years across two presidential administrations. President Biden kept in place the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who oversaw this probe to avoid the appearance of interference.
Remind us what prompted this investigation and how we got to this point today?Carrie Johnson, NPR: Yes, there were a number of reports back in 2018 that prompted the Justice Department have launched an investigation into Hunter Biden.
And David Weiss, who was then the U.S. attorney in Delaware during the Trump administration, opened up that probe. This covers a period in Hunter Biden's life when he was in the throes of drug addiction and making a lot of poor decisions in his life, including decisions about his finances, which came home to roost today with this plea agreement.
Geoff Bennett: And I want to talk more about that in a minute.
But, first, Donald Trump and other Republicans are suggesting that Hunter Biden got special treatment, that this amounts to a slap on the wrist. Here's how Speaker Kevin McCarthy described it this morning while speaking to reporters.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):
It continues to show the two-tier system in America. If you are the president's leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. If you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal.
Geoff Bennett:
So, Carrie, how does this plea deal compare with what any other American accused of similar wrongdoing might get?
Carrie Johnson:
One of the one of the messages we hear constantly from this Justice Department is they want to treat like cases alike.
And in this case, it's fairly unusual for the Justice Department to bring these kinds of tax charges against somebody who's repaid their tax bill, as Hunter Biden has as of a couple of years ago. And it's also fairly unusual to bring an unlawful possession of a weapons charged by someone addicted to drugs, absent some pattern of violence or other pattern of lawbreaking.
So if you look at the record, and you consider what the Supreme Court did last year in upending the system of gun regulation in this country, allies of Hunter Biden and former prosecutors suggest that this plea deal is actually somewhat harsher on Hunter Biden than it might be on someone else with his background and pattern of conduct.
Rather than being an unduly favorable plea deal, it actually could be somewhat harsher, in part because of who his and the political environment we currently face.
Geoff Bennett:
The White House, Adam, released a statement today, as I'm sure you know. And it reads this way: "The president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment."
Hunter Biden is 53 years old. Addiction has haunted him for much of his life. What was happening with him during this period that was subject to this DOJ investigation?
Adam Entous, The New York Times:
So basically, what happens is, is Hunter has been struggling with alcoholism basically since the early 2000s.
But his brother Beau would always take him to rehab, make sure he goes to the AAA, Alcoholics Anonymous, meetings. His brother dies in 2015. And after that, basically, the safety net disappears. Hunter doesn't have his brother Beau anymore. And so Hunter really just goes into a deep depression.
And during this period, the alcoholism comes back, and he — and he tries crack cocaine, and he's instantaneously addicted to it. So that's really kind of the context here. And I do think you need to understand what's going on with Joe Biden during this point. He had just lost his son Beau.
And the way Hunter spoke to family members and friends was very scary. I mean, he would say things like, "You all think the wrong son died," right? So that the context here is, I think, fear within the family that Hunter himself — they were really afraid for his future.
And so that's the context when he is trying to make money to basically pay for a lifestyle that his family had that really they couldn't afford at that stage. And so he's getting into business deals, which certainly raised ethical questions. And he was making decisions about — personal decisions about himself and what he was doing that reflected his state of mind, which was, he was he was using drugs all the time.
And so the tax charges and the gun issue are all at the — at this — really this terrible moment, when he basically can't keep track of anything in his life.
Geoff Bennett:
Let's talk about the politics of this, because Republicans trying to win back the White House, have tried to link Hunter Biden's legal problems with his father and suggest that they were both in on these corrupt deals together in China and in Ukraine.
Does anything in your reporting or does anything resulting from this DOJ investigation support that?
Adam Entous So there's sort of like this rule in the family that goes back before even Hunter. It's involved actually Joe Biden's brother, Jimmy, where — who was also in business, where they would not talk about business with Joe, who was a senator.
That was just sort of the family rule. And so Hunter wouldn't tell his dad about what he was doing. What happened is, when he joins the board of Burisma, the energy company in Ukraine, he doesn't tell his dad. His dad finds out from reading the clips that were sent to him by aides at the White House.
And he calls his son sometime after this and says — and says: "I hope you know what you're doing, son." And Hunter responds by saying: "I do."
And that was it. I mean, there was no more discussion about it.
Geoff Bennett:
Meantime, Carrie, Republicans are promising to step up their investigations into the Biden family.
How will this case affect that effort moving forward?
Carrie Johnson:
We heard today, Geoff, from Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican from Ohio, and James Comer, head of the House Oversight Committee, Republican from Kentucky, who say they're full steam ahead on these Biden family investigations.
They have already been pressing very hard the FBI for documents in these Biden family investigations. And one thing that really jumped out at me was the U.S. attorney in Delaware today, David Weiss, saying, this investigation is ongoing. So we don't know where it's going to end.
Hunter Biden's lawyer, Chris Clark, says he hopes things have been resolved. But we don't have that green light from prosecutors. And it's not clear to me the scope of this investigation, how much longer it might go on. It was also interesting to me today to see two federal prosecutors from Baltimore sign on to this — these plea documents, lawyers who have prosecuted corrupt police officers in Baltimore in the past, which could be a clue as to the ongoing nature of this investigation and where things stand.
