Fantastic Josh and totally agree. As someone who has not one but two addicts in their immediate family, it is a burden I would not wish upon anyone. Everything is constantly frantic and chaos. You love them and hate them all at the same time, and every (often bad) decision they make dominates your life as you're left to clean up whatever mess they created. The only way to not have this is to totally let them go, and that is a very, very hard thing to do, especially as a parent. I've seen that battle up close and most parents at their core just can't do it. They always hang onto hope for them, often neglecting their other kids who are not addicts, their relationships with them and others to make that happen. Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect.
"Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect."
Honestly, I think the way Biden spoke about Hunter when Trump attacked him during the debates really stirred the hearts of those Americans you're speaking of.
This is exactly right and it’s an all too familiar pattern to people with loved ones with addiction issues. I also think it’s worth noting that Hunter suffered a serious brain injury as a young child, in the same accident that took his mother’s life. This doesn’t get discussed as much (beyond mention of the obvious trauma of him having lost his mom), but it seems very plausible that Hunter’s “traumatic brain injury” (per the New Yorker) irrevocably affected the areas of Hunter’s brain relating to impulse control. This also makes it extra hard to simply show Hunter some “tough love”—how do you do that if you privately suspect he truly can’t help himself?
This is all fine and good if Biden remained a senator. But as president, he is held to a higher standard, and if he wasn’t willing to show his son tough love then he shouldn’t have ran for president at all.
That's correct. In fact, him, Eric and their BIL did much much more corrupt things. The Don Jr/Eric controlled Trump Org, and Kushner, all profited tremendously from Trump's presidency. And POTUS encouraged it every step of the way while he effectively funneled millions in taxpayer dollars to his sons, and allowed Kushner to trade on his influence to the tune of billions in Saudi and Chinese backed ventures.
Oh, I must have missed when Hunter was charged with extortion. When did that happen?
It didn’t, of course, but let’s not let that get in the way of your narrative.
If Hunter did criminally extort someone, he should be charged and if he is guilty, he should go to jail. None of that has happened yet, so let’s stick with reality.
Hate to say it but it’s possible he did show him tough love. But often that means you end up with messes like this.
Also let’s remember President DJT tried to end democracy, has three incitements against him now and is fundraising money off of his donors to pay his legal fees among other things. He’s not exactly winning the morality contest here!
The arguments that the President is innocent or guilty of wrongdoing, justified or unjustified in his actions, are all just a red herring.
The only thing we should be discussing is whether or not this mess rises to the level of needing a Special Prosecutor. And, OF COURSE IT DOES. There is a prima facia case being made that the President of the United States was involved in a scheme to trade political favors for money. For our current government to refuse to fully investigate this matter dramatically reduces its legitimacy. If you like Democracy, you should want enough light shed on this mess to determine what actually happened.
Except that there have been investigations into this already by the FBI andHouse Republicans are still trying to investigate if anything Hunter has done can be used to impeach Biden. From the looks of it, it's still a red herring since no political favors were traded, nor money. What Hunter has shown is that he was using "access" or the ability to get access to his father. This is very unethical, and seems that Biden was not aware of his son's schemes. That doesn't mean anything illegal was done.
The scheme to do what, exactly? Also did those schemes actually include Joe Biden and include criminal behavior? It is clear that Hunter was trying to peddle the appearance of access to his Dad, but it never actually materialized to anything. Again lots of rich kids peddle their parents name or use their names to open doors. It's unethical yes, illegal no. Also there haven't been any schemes since he was President.... He's basically been in legal trouble the past few years and dealing with the fallout of his bad decisions. As someone who has a few family members that are addicts, when you know that any time may be the last time you chat with them, I always pick up the phone when they call. Again, none of this excuses Hunter, and I'm sure Biden knew his son wasn't entirely on the up and up. But Hunter was a consultant and private citizen, what he did was his own thing, it's quite clear that no one can really stop Hunter from doing bad behavior, including his own father. What exactly do you want from Joe Biden right now in regards to his son that would make you feel justice has been served? Additionally, for whatever reason it's clear that Joe B just sees the best in his son and never thinks his intentions are ever really bad. I also don't think anyone including the President is all knowing of people's intentions, even with their own children.
Your article is well-written and clearly heartfelt. However, I don't find your arguments about Father's non-involvement persuasive. I think your own logic favors an open investigation to reassure the American public that the Father did not know or benefit from the Son's shady dealings: (1) By your own account, Father did know that Son often had his clients on the phone and was warned by a senior State Dept official that the Son was involved in arguably shady dealings; (2) Father's claimed lack of "bandwidth" offered better cause to pull back than to continue to engage; (3) Father's switch from claiming for years that he had absolutely no contact with Son's business partners raises concerns about possible coverup; (4) the Father's boasts about getting Shokhin fired seem to mesh with Burisma's alleged motives for hiring Son; (5) Son's claims of sharing money with other family members and Father himself would appear to merit investigation, (6) Allegedly numerous Son-related SARS filings by banks, while not proving any wrongdoing, suggest a desire to conceal payments that also merits more investigation; (7) the unusually lenient plea deal that was temporary nixed by a judge suggests that some people in DOJ want to discourage investigation, which again suggests a coverup. To be clear, I'm not saying that any of (1)-(8) proves Father's involvement, and personally I hope your optimistic reading is correct. It just strikes me that a thorough open investigation is the best way to clear the air.
Re (4), this is so off base that I really encourage you to refresh your memory on how this actually went down. Your off the cuff recollection is almost completely wrong.
Firing Shokin was the official policy of the US government, and Biden was sent to Ukraine to implement it. It was not a personal quest of Biden’s, it was the stated goal of the entire US foreign policy apparatus.
If Burisma wanted this to proceed, they literally had to do *nothing*. If they thought hiring Hunter Biden was going to do anything to further this goal, they’re a bunch of morons who deserved to be fleeced by an addict.
Your revelations are indeed news to me. I hadn't realized that the US had official policies about the dismissal of other country's officials absent war crimes or the like. Could you point me please to the public announcement? If not public, how did you find out about it, and do you know whether it tied $1 bn aid to ifs fulfillment? And why did this official policy require the Father, by the Father's own account, reaching out personally to Ukrainian leaders to implement it? If, as you claim, Burisma was moronic to believe that the Father's intervention was needed to implement it, then are millions of Americans moronic not to dismiss the Father's account as an empty boast?
Actually I was the IMF's first specialist to predict the breakup of the Soviet Union, participated in its first missions to Ukraine, and warned the State Dept already in 1991 of potential border conflicts with Russia in the Donbas and Crimea. I have followed Ukraine matters closely since. In particular, I long opposed US appeasement of Russian aggression of Ukraine and am glad that US policy has shifted. I apologize for interpreting "official" as a more formal commitment than you meant. Again, I have no evidence whether Father didn't know or only pretended not to know about Son's dealings and hope that he didn't.
Thanks for the links. They confirm that the US wanted Ukraine to take a firmer hand against corruption. They don't confirm that the US wanted Ukraine to take a softer hand against Burisma. Indeed, the Burisma-related arguments that FactCheck offered look embarrassing now, since they focused on discrediting the Son's laptop as not the Son's laptop, on relaying Father's denials that he ever met Son's business partners, and on portraying all Burisma-related allegations as Russian disinfo. Overall, they demonstrate the wisdom of State Dept official Kent's warnings to the Father about the Son's arguably shady dealings.
This is such a great piece of writing. Hunter is clearly a huge political liability; anyone with half a mind can see it.
But he's Joe's SON.
A little over 50 years ago, Joe's entire family left the house to go out Christmas shopping, and every person who got in that car that day is DEAD, except for Hunter.
To expect the President to renounce him, as so many of us sort of wish he could, for political expediency, is just unrealistic — and I'm not sure I could respect him if he did.
And of course, the hypocrisy from the right never ends: if he doesn't repudiate his son that means he's in on the deal, but he's a monster for "not acknowledging" the granddaughter that son had with a stripper while he was strung out on drugs — despite the fact that it's obvious she and her family would use it as nothing but an opportunity to make his life (and political career) miserable. 🙄
I understand the point of this piece but I feel it is misplaced. For better or worse, Joe Biden is a public figure, and as a public figure of high stature, family comes second to duty. If he felt his son was more important than the Oval Office, he should never have run for president in the first place. Which would have been a fine and supportable decision.
But he did run, and he won. And as a public figure, he needs to publicly denounce that level of corruption, no matter who it comes from.
Call me a bit jaded because every member of Trump’s family got dragged through the mud for far less serious offenses by the mainstream media, but I find this “Joe Biden is just a family man who cares about his son” to be kind of crap. We would not have this same level of sensitivity if this was Eric Trump who did this.
Appreciate the insight and love the article and am happy to be a subscriber, but I have to disagree with you on this one.
Not every member of Trump's family got dragged through the mud for far less offenses. That's a bad faith argument. Members of the Trump family, including himself wife, daughter and son in law held official positions in his administration and all have been heavily enriched financially from their positions.
I don't recall the media giving Tiffany and Barron Trump a hard time. Hunter has issues, is a problem and I also wish he didn't get invited to state dinners, but he doesn't have a job in the administration, and doesn't represent the government. Nor has he enriched himself since his father has been in office.
If Eric Trump did this you're probably right that we would be harder on him, since the entire Trump family has a history of corruption and Trump himself had been trying to tear down the pillars of democracy in our country. Outside of publicly saying his son's actions were wrong, what more would you like him to do so that Hunter is properly admonished?
No one tore down the pillars of our democracy. Trump was a sore loser who should have been impeached, but never seriously threatened the sovereignty of the USA.
And that’s entirely irrelevant to whether Joe Biden should publicly admonish his son.
Even a registered Republican like me can feel empathy over the personal tragedies that Joe Biden has had to endure. But I get off the bus when I see the White House stonewalling and the DOJ clearly bending over backward to "contain" the repercussions of Hunter's dealings. What does Josh Barro think about a DOJ lawyer admitting in open court there was no precedent for the structure of the plea agreement the government was presenting to the court? That Trump is a catastrophe does not provide a free pass to his principal political opponent.
One could argue that it is more extraordinary thing about the hearing was that a private citizen was charged criminally for a late payment of his taxes and lying on a gun application form about drug use. Were it any other private citizen, it's debate that those charges would have been brought... That is a major fact that seems to get overlooked... Additionally, what do you mean that Hunter is getting a free pass or do you mean J.Biden is getting a free pass? What type of punishment do you want to see Hunter get? Believe me while I applaud the job overall that Biden has done, I wish that neither him or Trump were running again, however the idea that Hunter or his father have been getting a free pass isn't true.
@PhillyT. I think my comment and your reply, taken together, illustrate the problem with today's political discourse. Discussion of every issue tends to become a Rashomon tale, with contradictory and seemingly irreconcilable differences in the telling. Thus, for example, one "side" thinks Hunter Biden has been getting favorable treatment from the government, while the other side thinks the government is abusing him. The party that looks bad under either scenario is the government. Where you and I agree is our wish that neither Trump nor Biden were running again. Millions would raise their glass to toast that thought.
Cheers to that mate. I for one don't think the government is abusing him or giving him leniency. I may not like Hunter but I think the plea deal seemed fair
Very beautiful essay. Empathetic and touching. It's my favorite you've written since "Let me tell you about the day in Paris I decided to get married".
As Vice-President and later as President, Joe Biden's duty to his office and to the American public trumped his duty to his family, whenever there was a conflict between the two duty realms. President Biden must be an idiot to keep defending Hunter. Isn't loyalty to Donald Trump above all else, Trump's trademark? I think it's way past time for both men to turn toward their own respective houses and try to get them in order, which will require them to leave the public service realm entirely, because there is no way they can can put America first when their own personal houses are so totally disarrayed.
The premises here are that Biden allowed his personal issues to trump his duty to the American public and that such action is comparable with that of Donald Trump.
Both elements are not correct. A truly notable fact about the Biden situation is the total lack of evidence of Biden abusing his office.
The less said about the Trump comparison the better.
Joe Biden's duty to the American public is to be a grown up man, who deals with reality personally and nationally. There is no way Joe Biden can be a level president with a son behaving like Hunter behaves. The proof of that is Joe Biden keeps taking up for Hunter. What Biden should have done was ask his own Justice Department to investigate Hunter, and thus trump the Republicans doing it instead. Donald Trump is the sorriest piece of shit in American politics today, perhaps in American politics ever, which don't say much good about his MAGAs and any non-MAGA Republicans who don't renounce him. It's a very sad commentary that Joe Biden, when he was Barack Obama's VP, didn't have enough sense to not let Hunter rope him into the Ukraine mess. It's just as sad a commentary that Joe Biden has not woke up yet to just how idiotic he looks to people who are political independents, thus don't have to keep pledging allegiance to the left, nor to the right, but to reality and sanity and, if they are so inclined, to God, they owe their allegiance.
I agree with Barro that Biden hasn't handled the situation perfectly, but you give the game away in your second sentence. You think Hunter's behavior disqualifies Joe as President regardless of Joe's behavior ("there is no way Joe Bide can be a level president with a son behaving like Hunter behaves"). I don't think that's true, even if I wish Joe Biden was handling the situation differently.
By the way Joe Biden handled his son's actions, he proved he was not big enough to be president and put his office and his country and the American people and the truth first.
Oh put away the violins and smell the coffee. Hunter and Jim Biden have been the bagmen for Joe Biden's shakedowns for long before crack was invented. Why do we need student loan relief? Because MBNA hired Hunter at $3.5 million a year as a lobbyist while his dad was rewriting the Bankruptcy Code, and student loan discharges were left out of the bill. The Bidens and the Wilmington
Democratic machine took the state of Delaware away from the DuPont family in 1972, and they have practiced old school machine politics and machine graft ever since.
If Hunter had ever been forced to get a real job he might have hit bottom and cleaned himself up, Joe made sure he never did.
I would love to hear a policy justification for allowing student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy. I’ve never seen anyone who claims that there’s some corrupt motive here defend the policy on the merits.
Colleges and universities, especially for-profit institutions, are allowed to shed their debts in bankruptcy court all the time, but if they bamboozle an 18 year old into indentured servitude there is no relief - not after 7 years, after 14 years or after 21 years. I don't think it's fair.
Student loan debt is unsecured, like credit card debt. If it were made dischargeable in bankruptcy like other debts, it would either require much greater taxpayer subsidy (because loan losses would be much higher), or it would have to have much higher interest rates, similar to the interest rates on credit cards.
Tuition has tracked this govt handout to the moon compared to almost every other item in a household budget for their pearls of wisdom. If government didn't pay carte blanche, or allow naive borrowers to be hoodwinked, the higher education/industrial complex would be much more manageable.
“I don’t think it’s fair” is not a policy justification.
And I have no idea what your point about colleges’ own debt is supposed to mean. Like Josh said, that’s secured debt; there is collateral, namely the colleges’ own assets and creditworthiness, to back those loans up. It has nothing to do with student loans.
This is a really strong article that addresses complicated topics: Joe's duty to his son vs the country; the parental bond in light of other fallen loved ones; bad people with charisma, etc. Well done.
"What I see here is a father who knows his son has tremendous issues, including a deep-seated need to feel useful and successful (like his late brother was) even though he fundamentally isn’t." Yup.
Very few addicts can maintain a costly addiction without enablers. His father looks to be chief among them. Joe looks almost as broken as Hunter. It’s a family disease.
I can buy all of this, but I have no reason to believe that large media outlets would have given anywhere near this same deference to a Republican president. The idea that the "illusion of access" talking point gaining purchase amongst CNN and NY Times writers and editors for a Republican president is absolutely ludicrous.
Fantastic Josh and totally agree. As someone who has not one but two addicts in their immediate family, it is a burden I would not wish upon anyone. Everything is constantly frantic and chaos. You love them and hate them all at the same time, and every (often bad) decision they make dominates your life as you're left to clean up whatever mess they created. The only way to not have this is to totally let them go, and that is a very, very hard thing to do, especially as a parent. I've seen that battle up close and most parents at their core just can't do it. They always hang onto hope for them, often neglecting their other kids who are not addicts, their relationships with them and others to make that happen. Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect.
"Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect."
Honestly, I think the way Biden spoke about Hunter when Trump attacked him during the debates really stirred the hearts of those Americans you're speaking of.
Completely agree.
This is exactly right and it’s an all too familiar pattern to people with loved ones with addiction issues. I also think it’s worth noting that Hunter suffered a serious brain injury as a young child, in the same accident that took his mother’s life. This doesn’t get discussed as much (beyond mention of the obvious trauma of him having lost his mom), but it seems very plausible that Hunter’s “traumatic brain injury” (per the New Yorker) irrevocably affected the areas of Hunter’s brain relating to impulse control. This also makes it extra hard to simply show Hunter some “tough love”—how do you do that if you privately suspect he truly can’t help himself?
This is all fine and good if Biden remained a senator. But as president, he is held to a higher standard, and if he wasn’t willing to show his son tough love then he shouldn’t have ran for president at all.
Cool cool, now do DJTJr.
Don Junior is an asshole, but he didn’t extort money for cocaine
You don’t know that. We only all this stuff abut Hunter anyway because we got access to years of his private communications
That's correct. In fact, him, Eric and their BIL did much much more corrupt things. The Don Jr/Eric controlled Trump Org, and Kushner, all profited tremendously from Trump's presidency. And POTUS encouraged it every step of the way while he effectively funneled millions in taxpayer dollars to his sons, and allowed Kushner to trade on his influence to the tune of billions in Saudi and Chinese backed ventures.
Oh, I must have missed when Hunter was charged with extortion. When did that happen?
It didn’t, of course, but let’s not let that get in the way of your narrative.
If Hunter did criminally extort someone, he should be charged and if he is guilty, he should go to jail. None of that has happened yet, so let’s stick with reality.
I think it's a legitimate weakness of Joe Biden's, but I find it profoundly bizarre to cast as a go/no-go.
Hate to say it but it’s possible he did show him tough love. But often that means you end up with messes like this.
Also let’s remember President DJT tried to end democracy, has three incitements against him now and is fundraising money off of his donors to pay his legal fees among other things. He’s not exactly winning the morality contest here!
I think this is one of your best pieces. Less *fun* than "Gavin Newsom Is Gross and Embarrassing", but really nails something far more complex.
The arguments that the President is innocent or guilty of wrongdoing, justified or unjustified in his actions, are all just a red herring.
The only thing we should be discussing is whether or not this mess rises to the level of needing a Special Prosecutor. And, OF COURSE IT DOES. There is a prima facia case being made that the President of the United States was involved in a scheme to trade political favors for money. For our current government to refuse to fully investigate this matter dramatically reduces its legitimacy. If you like Democracy, you should want enough light shed on this mess to determine what actually happened.
Except that there have been investigations into this already by the FBI andHouse Republicans are still trying to investigate if anything Hunter has done can be used to impeach Biden. From the looks of it, it's still a red herring since no political favors were traded, nor money. What Hunter has shown is that he was using "access" or the ability to get access to his father. This is very unethical, and seems that Biden was not aware of his son's schemes. That doesn't mean anything illegal was done.
How could Joe Biden not been aware of his son's schemes? He was the Vice-President, and then he was the President?
Being VP/President doesn't make you omniscient. Are you aware of every bad thing all of your family members have ever done?
of course not, but how could an American vice-president not know what his son was up to in Ukraine?
The scheme to do what, exactly? Also did those schemes actually include Joe Biden and include criminal behavior? It is clear that Hunter was trying to peddle the appearance of access to his Dad, but it never actually materialized to anything. Again lots of rich kids peddle their parents name or use their names to open doors. It's unethical yes, illegal no. Also there haven't been any schemes since he was President.... He's basically been in legal trouble the past few years and dealing with the fallout of his bad decisions. As someone who has a few family members that are addicts, when you know that any time may be the last time you chat with them, I always pick up the phone when they call. Again, none of this excuses Hunter, and I'm sure Biden knew his son wasn't entirely on the up and up. But Hunter was a consultant and private citizen, what he did was his own thing, it's quite clear that no one can really stop Hunter from doing bad behavior, including his own father. What exactly do you want from Joe Biden right now in regards to his son that would make you feel justice has been served? Additionally, for whatever reason it's clear that Joe B just sees the best in his son and never thinks his intentions are ever really bad. I also don't think anyone including the President is all knowing of people's intentions, even with their own children.
If Joe Biden is that naive about his son, then Joe needs a new line work.
Your article is well-written and clearly heartfelt. However, I don't find your arguments about Father's non-involvement persuasive. I think your own logic favors an open investigation to reassure the American public that the Father did not know or benefit from the Son's shady dealings: (1) By your own account, Father did know that Son often had his clients on the phone and was warned by a senior State Dept official that the Son was involved in arguably shady dealings; (2) Father's claimed lack of "bandwidth" offered better cause to pull back than to continue to engage; (3) Father's switch from claiming for years that he had absolutely no contact with Son's business partners raises concerns about possible coverup; (4) the Father's boasts about getting Shokhin fired seem to mesh with Burisma's alleged motives for hiring Son; (5) Son's claims of sharing money with other family members and Father himself would appear to merit investigation, (6) Allegedly numerous Son-related SARS filings by banks, while not proving any wrongdoing, suggest a desire to conceal payments that also merits more investigation; (7) the unusually lenient plea deal that was temporary nixed by a judge suggests that some people in DOJ want to discourage investigation, which again suggests a coverup. To be clear, I'm not saying that any of (1)-(8) proves Father's involvement, and personally I hope your optimistic reading is correct. It just strikes me that a thorough open investigation is the best way to clear the air.
Re (4), this is so off base that I really encourage you to refresh your memory on how this actually went down. Your off the cuff recollection is almost completely wrong.
Firing Shokin was the official policy of the US government, and Biden was sent to Ukraine to implement it. It was not a personal quest of Biden’s, it was the stated goal of the entire US foreign policy apparatus.
If Burisma wanted this to proceed, they literally had to do *nothing*. If they thought hiring Hunter Biden was going to do anything to further this goal, they’re a bunch of morons who deserved to be fleeced by an addict.
Your revelations are indeed news to me. I hadn't realized that the US had official policies about the dismissal of other country's officials absent war crimes or the like. Could you point me please to the public announcement? If not public, how did you find out about it, and do you know whether it tied $1 bn aid to ifs fulfillment? And why did this official policy require the Father, by the Father's own account, reaching out personally to Ukrainian leaders to implement it? If, as you claim, Burisma was moronic to believe that the Father's intervention was needed to implement it, then are millions of Americans moronic not to dismiss the Father's account as an empty boast?
Obama assigned Biden to the task. Have you literally never read any of the journalism on this topic?
Actually I was the IMF's first specialist to predict the breakup of the Soviet Union, participated in its first missions to Ukraine, and warned the State Dept already in 1991 of potential border conflicts with Russia in the Donbas and Crimea. I have followed Ukraine matters closely since. In particular, I long opposed US appeasement of Russian aggression of Ukraine and am glad that US policy has shifted. I apologize for interpreting "official" as a more formal commitment than you meant. Again, I have no evidence whether Father didn't know or only pretended not to know about Son's dealings and hope that he didn't.
You can look this up directly...
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trump-revives-false-narrative-on-biden-and-ukraine/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/business/media/fact-check-biden-ukraine-burisma-china-hunter.html
Thanks for the links. They confirm that the US wanted Ukraine to take a firmer hand against corruption. They don't confirm that the US wanted Ukraine to take a softer hand against Burisma. Indeed, the Burisma-related arguments that FactCheck offered look embarrassing now, since they focused on discrediting the Son's laptop as not the Son's laptop, on relaying Father's denials that he ever met Son's business partners, and on portraying all Burisma-related allegations as Russian disinfo. Overall, they demonstrate the wisdom of State Dept official Kent's warnings to the Father about the Son's arguably shady dealings.
It's being investigated.
This is such a great piece of writing. Hunter is clearly a huge political liability; anyone with half a mind can see it.
But he's Joe's SON.
A little over 50 years ago, Joe's entire family left the house to go out Christmas shopping, and every person who got in that car that day is DEAD, except for Hunter.
To expect the President to renounce him, as so many of us sort of wish he could, for political expediency, is just unrealistic — and I'm not sure I could respect him if he did.
And of course, the hypocrisy from the right never ends: if he doesn't repudiate his son that means he's in on the deal, but he's a monster for "not acknowledging" the granddaughter that son had with a stripper while he was strung out on drugs — despite the fact that it's obvious she and her family would use it as nothing but an opportunity to make his life (and political career) miserable. 🙄
I understand the point of this piece but I feel it is misplaced. For better or worse, Joe Biden is a public figure, and as a public figure of high stature, family comes second to duty. If he felt his son was more important than the Oval Office, he should never have run for president in the first place. Which would have been a fine and supportable decision.
But he did run, and he won. And as a public figure, he needs to publicly denounce that level of corruption, no matter who it comes from.
Call me a bit jaded because every member of Trump’s family got dragged through the mud for far less serious offenses by the mainstream media, but I find this “Joe Biden is just a family man who cares about his son” to be kind of crap. We would not have this same level of sensitivity if this was Eric Trump who did this.
Appreciate the insight and love the article and am happy to be a subscriber, but I have to disagree with you on this one.
Not every member of Trump's family got dragged through the mud for far less offenses. That's a bad faith argument. Members of the Trump family, including himself wife, daughter and son in law held official positions in his administration and all have been heavily enriched financially from their positions.
I don't recall the media giving Tiffany and Barron Trump a hard time. Hunter has issues, is a problem and I also wish he didn't get invited to state dinners, but he doesn't have a job in the administration, and doesn't represent the government. Nor has he enriched himself since his father has been in office.
If Eric Trump did this you're probably right that we would be harder on him, since the entire Trump family has a history of corruption and Trump himself had been trying to tear down the pillars of democracy in our country. Outside of publicly saying his son's actions were wrong, what more would you like him to do so that Hunter is properly admonished?
No one tore down the pillars of our democracy. Trump was a sore loser who should have been impeached, but never seriously threatened the sovereignty of the USA.
And that’s entirely irrelevant to whether Joe Biden should publicly admonish his son.
Even a registered Republican like me can feel empathy over the personal tragedies that Joe Biden has had to endure. But I get off the bus when I see the White House stonewalling and the DOJ clearly bending over backward to "contain" the repercussions of Hunter's dealings. What does Josh Barro think about a DOJ lawyer admitting in open court there was no precedent for the structure of the plea agreement the government was presenting to the court? That Trump is a catastrophe does not provide a free pass to his principal political opponent.
One could argue that it is more extraordinary thing about the hearing was that a private citizen was charged criminally for a late payment of his taxes and lying on a gun application form about drug use. Were it any other private citizen, it's debate that those charges would have been brought... That is a major fact that seems to get overlooked... Additionally, what do you mean that Hunter is getting a free pass or do you mean J.Biden is getting a free pass? What type of punishment do you want to see Hunter get? Believe me while I applaud the job overall that Biden has done, I wish that neither him or Trump were running again, however the idea that Hunter or his father have been getting a free pass isn't true.
@PhillyT. I think my comment and your reply, taken together, illustrate the problem with today's political discourse. Discussion of every issue tends to become a Rashomon tale, with contradictory and seemingly irreconcilable differences in the telling. Thus, for example, one "side" thinks Hunter Biden has been getting favorable treatment from the government, while the other side thinks the government is abusing him. The party that looks bad under either scenario is the government. Where you and I agree is our wish that neither Trump nor Biden were running again. Millions would raise their glass to toast that thought.
Cheers to that mate. I for one don't think the government is abusing him or giving him leniency. I may not like Hunter but I think the plea deal seemed fair
Very beautiful essay. Empathetic and touching. It's my favorite you've written since "Let me tell you about the day in Paris I decided to get married".
I agree, and some of the responses below are unbelievably depressing to me.
As Vice-President and later as President, Joe Biden's duty to his office and to the American public trumped his duty to his family, whenever there was a conflict between the two duty realms. President Biden must be an idiot to keep defending Hunter. Isn't loyalty to Donald Trump above all else, Trump's trademark? I think it's way past time for both men to turn toward their own respective houses and try to get them in order, which will require them to leave the public service realm entirely, because there is no way they can can put America first when their own personal houses are so totally disarrayed.
The premises here are that Biden allowed his personal issues to trump his duty to the American public and that such action is comparable with that of Donald Trump.
Both elements are not correct. A truly notable fact about the Biden situation is the total lack of evidence of Biden abusing his office.
The less said about the Trump comparison the better.
Joe Biden's duty to the American public is to be a grown up man, who deals with reality personally and nationally. There is no way Joe Biden can be a level president with a son behaving like Hunter behaves. The proof of that is Joe Biden keeps taking up for Hunter. What Biden should have done was ask his own Justice Department to investigate Hunter, and thus trump the Republicans doing it instead. Donald Trump is the sorriest piece of shit in American politics today, perhaps in American politics ever, which don't say much good about his MAGAs and any non-MAGA Republicans who don't renounce him. It's a very sad commentary that Joe Biden, when he was Barack Obama's VP, didn't have enough sense to not let Hunter rope him into the Ukraine mess. It's just as sad a commentary that Joe Biden has not woke up yet to just how idiotic he looks to people who are political independents, thus don't have to keep pledging allegiance to the left, nor to the right, but to reality and sanity and, if they are so inclined, to God, they owe their allegiance.
I agree with Barro that Biden hasn't handled the situation perfectly, but you give the game away in your second sentence. You think Hunter's behavior disqualifies Joe as President regardless of Joe's behavior ("there is no way Joe Bide can be a level president with a son behaving like Hunter behaves"). I don't think that's true, even if I wish Joe Biden was handling the situation differently.
By the way Joe Biden handled his son's actions, he proved he was not big enough to be president and put his office and his country and the American people and the truth first.
It’s a horribly sad situation for everyone involved.
Oh put away the violins and smell the coffee. Hunter and Jim Biden have been the bagmen for Joe Biden's shakedowns for long before crack was invented. Why do we need student loan relief? Because MBNA hired Hunter at $3.5 million a year as a lobbyist while his dad was rewriting the Bankruptcy Code, and student loan discharges were left out of the bill. The Bidens and the Wilmington
Democratic machine took the state of Delaware away from the DuPont family in 1972, and they have practiced old school machine politics and machine graft ever since.
If Hunter had ever been forced to get a real job he might have hit bottom and cleaned himself up, Joe made sure he never did.
I would love to hear a policy justification for allowing student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy. I’ve never seen anyone who claims that there’s some corrupt motive here defend the policy on the merits.
Colleges and universities, especially for-profit institutions, are allowed to shed their debts in bankruptcy court all the time, but if they bamboozle an 18 year old into indentured servitude there is no relief - not after 7 years, after 14 years or after 21 years. I don't think it's fair.
Student loan debt is unsecured, like credit card debt. If it were made dischargeable in bankruptcy like other debts, it would either require much greater taxpayer subsidy (because loan losses would be much higher), or it would have to have much higher interest rates, similar to the interest rates on credit cards.
Tuition has tracked this govt handout to the moon compared to almost every other item in a household budget for their pearls of wisdom. If government didn't pay carte blanche, or allow naive borrowers to be hoodwinked, the higher education/industrial complex would be much more manageable.
“I don’t think it’s fair” is not a policy justification.
And I have no idea what your point about colleges’ own debt is supposed to mean. Like Josh said, that’s secured debt; there is collateral, namely the colleges’ own assets and creditworthiness, to back those loans up. It has nothing to do with student loans.
Josh,
This is a really strong article that addresses complicated topics: Joe's duty to his son vs the country; the parental bond in light of other fallen loved ones; bad people with charisma, etc. Well done.
"What I see here is a father who knows his son has tremendous issues, including a deep-seated need to feel useful and successful (like his late brother was) even though he fundamentally isn’t." Yup.
Josh, you nailed this. Thank you for so eloquently saying what I’ve been privately wrestling with.
Very few addicts can maintain a costly addiction without enablers. His father looks to be chief among them. Joe looks almost as broken as Hunter. It’s a family disease.
I can buy all of this, but I have no reason to believe that large media outlets would have given anywhere near this same deference to a Republican president. The idea that the "illusion of access" talking point gaining purchase amongst CNN and NY Times writers and editors for a Republican president is absolutely ludicrous.