PBS News Hour may have launched a rebranding campaign this week with a new studio and a new name that now makes News Hour two words instead of one, but that doesn’t mean the weekly Friday recap with New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist and pinch hitter for Jonathan Capeheart, E.J. Dionne, was any better as the duo insisted Hunter Biden is a victim of politics and that Republicans are hypocrites.
Host Geoff Bennett began with Brooks and asked, “David, has the GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target his political opponents, has that been undercut by the fact that Joe Biden’s Justice Department successfully prosecuted his son?”
Brooks began by repeating what he said a week ago, “Yeah, I guess so, yes. No — well, a couple of things. I do not think Hunter Biden would be having these trials if his dad wasn’t president. I think he was in a terrible mess. He was addicted to drugs. He signed some false documents. Yeah, that’s bad.”
He then recalled, “But the guy was leading a very sad and pathetic life, which he’s trying to climb his way out of. And so, as I said on the NewsHour last week, I just felt so much sadness reading all that he went through and all that he did. And I don’t think, if he had a — didn’t have a high-profile father, he would be suffering this increased conviction of a felony. I think they would have said, okay, you did this. Let’s wrap it up. And so I think he’s — in some sense, he’s a troubled guy who’s the victim of his father — of politics, frankly.”
Dionne agreed, “I see — in terms of the tragedy here, I see it very much as David did.”
Turning to Republicans, he lamented, “It was a little dispiriting to see Republicans, on the one hand, say, we got to sort of live by this case, respect the jury, they found him guilty, these were legitimate charges, and then, when asked about a certain jury in New York with a certain other person, ‘oh, well, that is totally different.’”
Republicans would say that is too simplistic because there were real problems with the Trump case, but Dionne wasn’t convinced, “And, yeah, I suppose they could argue if they want about the case that was brought, but the case was very clear and involved some real crimes that were committed linked to a cover-up. And yet it’s okay to prosecute Hunter Biden, not to prosecute Donald Trump? There’s something wrong with that.”
What real crimes were linked to a cover up? Nobody knows for sure because the D.A. didn’t specify and the judge didn’t make him.
Dionne concluded by circling back to Bennett’s original question and conveniently forgetting about the original plea deal that a judge tossed out, “And, you know, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department went after Hunter Biden with a prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump. That sure doesn’t look like politicization to me.”
New name, new studio, same old taxpayer subsidized liberal spin.
PBS NewsHour
6/14/2024
7:45 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT : Let’s shift our focus to the Hunter Biden guilty conviction. A federal jury found him guilty on all three federal felony gun charges he faced earlier this week.
David, has the GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target his political opponents, has that been undercut by the fact that Joe Biden’s Justice Department successfully prosecuted his son?
DAVID BROOKS: Yeah, I guess so, yes. No — well, a couple of things. I do not think Hunter Biden would be having these trials if his dad wasn’t president. I think he was in a terrible mess. He was addicted to drugs. He signed some false documents. Yeah, that’s bad.
But the guy was leading a very sad and pathetic life, which he’s trying to climb his way out of. And so, as I said on the NewsHour last week, I just felt so much sadness reading all that he went through and all that he did. And I don’t think, if he had a — didn’t have a high-profile father, he would be suffering this increased conviction of a felony.
I think they would have said, okay, you did this. Let’s wrap it up. And so I think he’s — in some sense, he’s a troubled guy who’s the victim of his father — of politics, frankly.
BENNETT: How do you see it, E.J.?
E.J. DIONNE: Yes, I see — in terms of the tragedy here, I see it very much as David did.
It was a little dispiriting to see Republicans, on the one hand, say, we got to sort of live by this case, respect the jury, they found him guilty, these were legitimate charges, and then, when asked about a certain jury in New York with a certain other person, “oh, well, that is totally different.”
And, yeah, I suppose they could argue if they want about the case that was brought, but the case was very clear and involved some real crimes that were committed linked to a cover-up. And yet it’s okay to prosecute Hunter Biden, not to prosecute Donald Trump? There’s something wrong with that.
And, you know, Merrick Garland’s Justice Department went after Hunter Biden with a prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump. That sure doesn’t look like politicization to me.