Wow.
Less than two weeks after former President Donald Trump was found guilty in his hush money trial in New York, the country got news of another first on Tuesday: President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted of all three federal gun charges.
He faces years in prison and is still awaiting a new trial later this year in California on federal tax charges.
Regardless of how one feels about Trump or the Bidens and the fairness of their respective charges and trials, it is notable that both a former president – and presumptive Republican presidential nominee – and the son of a sitting president are now both convicted felons in the eyes of the law.
This veil of scandal would have been shocking at any other time in American history. Recent years, however, have ushered in a new era in American politics, where criminal convictions against both leading candidates for president in an election year don’t feel so extraordinary.
That’s partly why, as I’ve written before, I don’t believe Trump’s conviction will affect the election results in any meaningful way (except perhaps to increase his support).
Likewise, I don’t see Hunter Biden’s judgment doing anything to influence voters’ perception of his father.
Will Trump’s beliefs sway voters? Trump is guilty. It won’t make any difference this election.
Did Hunter Biden Get Special Treatment?
Just as Trump’s supporters quickly dismissed his conviction as political persecution, the same will undoubtedly happen to Hunter. A sympathetic news media has focused on the first son’s drug and alcohol addiction and based many of his legal problems on it. (Unsurprisingly, so does Hunter Biden.)
As difficult as addiction may be, it does not give anyone a license to commit criminal behavior.
And while it’s true that a former president and a president’s son aren’t on the same page, Hunter’s legal troubles have always raised the possibility of a connection to his father as the younger Biden’s lucrative foreign business dealings were about selling access to the Biden. name – and possibly Biden himself when he was still vice president.
Hunter’s laptop: Trump was right about Hunter’s “laptop from hell,” even though Biden claimed Russian disinformation
Hunter’s alleged international influence operation has been left out of special counsel David Weiss’ investigation, which could pose much more serious risks for the Bidens.
All of this raises the question of whether the president’s son has received special treatment from the president’s Justice Department. That certainly seemed to be the case last summer, when an out-of-court plea deal negotiated in part by Weiss fell through because of its incredible leniency.
When Attorney General Merrick Garland ultimately appointed a special counsel in Hunter’s case, legal analysts say he circumvented federal regulations by appointing Weiss since he was already working as a U.S. attorney at the DOJ.
President Biden is his own biggest threat
But no matter how shady the actions of Hunter and the Biden family business, the biggest risk to Biden’s re-election chances remains… himself.
The president’s age and mental capacity are voters’ top concerns, and for good reason.
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At 81, Biden’s mumbling, stumbling and strange behavior in public are constant reminders of his declining abilities.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a scathing, in-depth report on the president’s decline. Frankly, it’s sad. He has no plans for another four-year term.
Biden in decline: Special counsel says Biden is ‘an older man with a bad memory’. And he’s the Democrats’ guy?
Pollster Nate Silver this week pointed to Biden’s low weekend approval rating of 37.4%, according to FiveThirtyEight, as a warning that it may be time for Biden to pull the plug on his campaign.
“Stopping prematurely would be a big risk,” Silver wrote on X. “But there is a threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk. Are we there yet? Don’t know. But it’s more than fair to ask.”
Biden was so confident that Trump would be easy to beat. That’s just not the case.
As sensational as the recent criminal convictions of Donald Trump and Hunter Biden have been, they will not distract voters from wondering whether Joe Biden can continue to do the country’s most important job.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or at X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden and Trump are now criminals. On election day it doesn’t matter
