Of Course Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal Is Bad News for the President

Noah Rothman with you again today in Jim Geraghty’s stead. Dominic Pino takes over on Friday, and Jim is back in the driver’s seat next week.

On the menu today: When the adult son of a sitting president pleads guilty to criminal charges, it’s reasonable to assume that is not great news for the president. This intuitive conclusion has apparently eluded the press amid its coverage of Hunter Biden’s plea agreement with the Department of Justice.

The Media’s Selective Blindness

On Tuesday, the president’s son acknowledged his guilt in charges relating to his failure to pay income taxes, while also accepting a pretrial diversion agreement in connection with a felony gun-possession charge. When the news of the deal broke, a familiar dynamic emerged in political media. Republican lawmakers, many of whom have long maintained that the Biden family’s “troubles” are not only fair political game but are reflective of more disturbing patterns of misconduct within the House of Biden, made their objections to the nature of this plea deal known. In response, press outlets feigned distaste for the GOP’s opportunism.