Hunter Biden’s conviction hurts 2024 campaign

Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict marks the latest issue thrown at the 2024 campaign between President Biden and former President Trump ahead of the November contest.

For Biden, the result mitigates Republican demands for a two-tier justice system and the use of the DOJ as a weapon against the president’s political rival. But people close to Biden said the personal toll will be heavy for a man close to his family, as evidenced by a quickly arranged trip to Delaware to be with his son after the verdict.

David Axelrod, a former senior adviser in the Obama White House, said the psychological impact on Biden is the biggest question following the verdict.

“You know, Joe Biden lost two sons and watched his son struggle with addiction. And this is a scam. This is a scam,” Axelrod said on his podcast, “Hacks on Tap.”

But the verdict also creates an obstacle for Trump and his campaign, which must weigh how aggressively it will attack the president over his son. The former president at times called for a special counsel to investigate the Biden family and frequently accused Biden of being “dishonest,” but he also spoke publicly about his own family’s struggle with addiction.

“It’s a very difficult situation for a parent; it is a very difficult situation for a brother or sister; and it continues, and it doesn’t stop, whether it’s alcohol, drugs or whatever,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday, two days after Hunter Biden’s conviction. “It’s a difficult time for any family involved in this.”

Hunter Biden was found guilty 11 days after Trump was also convicted on entirely different charges. Hunter Biden was found guilty of three federal gun charges for lying about being addicted to drugs while purchasing a firearm, while Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in a secret case involving falsifying business records.

The reaction of each defendant after each verdict could not have been further apart, however.

Trump frequently criticized the judge in his case, who he often called “rigged” and placed the blame squarely on President Biden, while in Hunter Biden’s case, he and his father said they accept the jury’s verdict while acknowledging recovery efforts. of young Biden.

“Politically, [Tuesday] speaks to the definitive contrast between the two men running for president: a family man versus a businessman,” said Michael LaRosa, first lady Jill Biden’s traveling press secretary during the 2020 campaign. family throws tantrums and complains, complains or attacks the judge and the judicial system, while the President and the Biden family show nothing but humility and respect for the process, the jury, the judge and the system – even when they are delivered a result heart touching.

The divergent verdicts also left Republicans wondering whether there is a strong case for the GOP to use against Hunter Biden following his conviction.

“O [Hunter Biden] The conviction definitely helps provide a “But Hunter” response to the left’s criticism of Trump’s ethics. But the fact that it revolves around clearly personal behavior, as opposed to some official actions, means it’s probably more of a soundbite than an argument,” said Stewart Verdery, former deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under Bush and CEO of Monument Advocacy.

Several members of the close-knit Biden family, in addition to the president himself, attended the trial in Wilmington, including first lady Jill Biden. After the verdict, Biden took an unplanned trip to Wilmington before leaving for Italy on Wednesday to see his son.

The personal nature of Hunter’s trial is one reason Republicans may not try to take political advantage of Hunter Biden’s conviction.

One Republican strategist noted that the case deals with gun rights and addiction, two areas where Republican base voters might actually sympathize with the president’s son.

“The point about weaponizing the DOJ is right,” said one Republican strategist, noting that Hunter Biden originally had a plea deal in place that would have seen him plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution on the misdemeanor charge. carrying a weapon.

“Republicans don’t care about the gun charge. This is not a weapon charge. It was never about the gun possession charge,” said the strategist. “It was about taxes, documents and connections to what they were doing abroad.”

As Election Day approaches, Hunter Biden will face a whole new set of legal problems, right in the heat of the general election.

The president’s son is scheduled to be tried separately in September on federal tax charges, and his sentencing in the gun case will also come later this year. Trump is also involved in three other state and federal cases arising from efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the potential misuse of classified documents, but those cases almost certainly won’t reach a jury before Election Day.

Still, the legal battles could reach the debate stage in June, when President Biden and Trump meet for their first presidential debate, a potential window into how both campaigns treat what happened in court.

So far, the Biden campaign has on multiple occasions branded Trump a “convicted criminal” and Biden has trolled Trump during the trial as being “free on Wednesdays,” the day of the week when the court does not meet.

The Trump campaign has for years attacked the Biden family as being criminally corrupt, but since Hunter Biden’s convictions, Trump and Republicans have been fairly tight-lipped about attacking Hunter and his father.

The personal impact on Biden could also help resonate with a broader electorate. In his first statement on his son’s verdict, the president appealed to other families with addicted loved ones, saying they “understand the feeling of pride in seeing someone you love come out on the other side.”

Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director, said people were tuned into conversations about the Biden family’s struggles during the 2020 campaign.

“Even people who maybe didn’t even feel that much sympathy for Biden resonated politically with the way he talked about his family and supported his son,” she said on CNN on Tuesday.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story