The MRC's Hunter Biden Derangement: The Pardon
The Media Research Center raged that President Biden pardoned his son to spare him for years of vindictive right-wing lawfare against him, mad about losing that opportunity.
The Media Research Center largely lost interest in beating up on Hunter Biden after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race. After all, the sole reason the MRC and its fellow right-wingers persecuted and waged lawfare on Hunter was to break the spirit of his father; if Hunter could be driven to suicide in the process, all the better. After spending the summer beating up on Hunter over the gun charges he faced, the MRC were a couple of post-trial examples:
An Aug. 14 post by Curtis Houck hyped “a New York Times bombshell (via documents conveniently turned over once Joe ended his campaign) that Hunter Biden ought help from the U.S. Embassy in Italy to set up meetings with Italian officials to promote the infamous Ukrainian energy company, Burisma” and whined once again that non-right-wing channels didn’t go all Fox News on it.
Tim Graham cheered “Hunter Biden’s shocking guilty plea in a California courtroom” in a Sept. 6 post, adding that “the Big Three aired more than eight minutes of coverage.” That wasn’t enough, of course; he went on to grumble there was “No mention of the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop exposing the guilty activities from in the last weeks of the 2020 campaign.” and “No Republican soundbites or statements,” and that “Most ignored or soft-soaped Hunter’s binging on crack cocaine and hookers with his untaxed millions.”
MRC writers also raged at talk of pardoning Hunter. Mark Finkelstein asserted on Sept. 6 that “CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny uttered a very cynical ‘why not?’ on the question of whether Joe Biden should pardon Hunter.” He went on to huff: “Question: What are the odds Hunter would have pleaded guilty if the fix weren’t already in with the Big Guy[?]” Nicholas Fondadcaro whined about it in his Nov. 27 hate-watch of “The View”:
After spending nearly a decade calling President-elect Trump a threat to democracy/institutions/norms and proclaiming ‘no one is above the law’ as they demanded he be put in prison, the Cackling Coven of ABC’s The View put their ideologically driven hypocrisy on full display on Wednesday as the urged President Biden to pardon his criminal son Hunter. Not only him, but his vicious dog who attacked and injured multiple people.
The idea of a pardon for Hunter was the first Hot Topic of the show. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg seemed to get the answer they were looking for from the audience since they cheered for the idea and a few people shouted “yes”:
[…]
Hunter Biden lied about his drug use on a federal background check form, which is a felony. The ATF’s website notes: “Applicants who knowingly make false statements may also face criminal prosecution for a felony and up to 10 years in federal prison.”
Despite the facts, and without evidence, Hostin declared “that the only reason he was indicted is because his last name is Biden” and “it is the right thing to do to correct course and correct that wrong and pardon his son.”
Fondacaro didn’t mention that even Republican Lindsey Graham has said that most Americans would never face the gun charge against Hunter.
When Biden did pardon Hunter, the MRC lost its collective ever-lovin’ mind. Jorge Bonilla huffed in a Dec. 1 post:
The political world has been roiled by the (not at all surprising) news of President Joe Biden’s grant of a pardon to his controversial son, Hunter. Holiday weekend notwithstanding, the Regime Media are hard at work furiously spinning the pardon.
Bonilla, meanwhile, had his own furious spin to peddle:
One quickly congealing narrative is the “what about” narrative: that Biden’s pardon of Hunter should not be viewed as scandalous because of some of the pardons issued by President Elect Donald Trump during his first term. But the record reflects that Biden allegedly ran in order to rebuild the norms once shattered by Trump. Pardoning the crack-addled failson, after pointedly saying you wouldn’t, flies in the face of all that.
The other key narrative is Biden therefore HAD to pardon Hunter because of the coming political landscape. Expect Biden to be recast NOT as a corrupt liar who twisted government to his family’s benefit, but as a loving father who saw Kash Patel coming down the pike. He had no choice, you see.
Exit question: if the Hunter pardon is dropping now, what’s coming down the pike?
After Mark Finkelstein ranted that “Morming Joe” refused to make a sufficiently big deal of it, Curtis Houck raged:
With less than 30 minutes of air time Sunday night before bailing out for taped programming (while Fox News and MSNBC continued on for hours), CNN was ebullient Sunday night over President Joe Biden’s pardoning of son Hunter and called it a “poignant” and “monumental moment” to serve as the “culmination” of his entire presidency to save his “only surviving son” amid a life of “cruel” “hardships.”
Senior national correspondent Jeff Zeleny was in pole position to sound off and, boy, did he ever.
[…]
Senior political reporter and all-around hack Edward-Isaac Dovere joined the sympathy parade, calling the debate over whether to pardon “has been a great pain to Joe Biden for many years and was weighing on him as he decided whether to run for reelection” and that Hunter’s struggles were exacerbated by who his father is.
Zeleny returned for more chicanery, this time revealing the question over pardoning Hunter had only “been very much a family discussion” centering around fears of what a Trump Justice Department would investigate and not “as a policy matter inside the West Wing.”
Senior legal analyst Elie Honig was next and suggested pardoning family members isn’t without precedent given Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger in 2001 and President Trump pardoning his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father in 2021. Nonetheless, he worried the pardon “will really be a” political “Rorschach test.”
Houck concluded by “Far-left presidential historian Douglas Brinkley brought up the rear and closed out this tail-kissing of the Bidens with nonsense about Hunter Biden’s conduct now relegated to “political…folklore,” but offered no evidence whatsoever that Brinkley is “far-left.”
Fondacaro unsurprisingly brought it up in his Dec. 2 hate-watch of “The View”:
Christmas came early over the weekend for the Cackling Coven of ABC’s The View. They got their wish that President Biden pardon his son for his tax and gun crimes. On Monday’s show, fake Republican Ana Navarro boasted about lobbying Biden for this outcome and called it the greatest gift of all “the gift of freedom,” meanwhile moderator Whoopi Goldberg was lashing out and raging at those who called Biden out for being a liar.
Of course, since they were an ABC News property, they didn’t tell the whole truth that the pardon also covered financial crimes dating back to Biden’s time as vice president, which hadn’t been charged yet. “Yesterday Biden had a change of heart granting his son a full pardon on tax evasion and federal gun charges,” Goldberg said.
After decrying some of President-elect Trump’s pardons from his first term, Goldberg engaged in some major whataboutism to write off the Hunter pardon as just par for the course and dismiss the “pearl-clutching”:
Foncacaro didn’t mention that he and his co-workers were the chief (hypocritical) pearl-clutchers.
Houck returned to whine: “Unsurprisingly, ABC’s Good Morning America stood out among the broadcast networks on Monday as the most pro-Biden family in covering President Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of son Hunter, arguing the act to save ‘his only living son’ was done to save him from a politicized Trump Justice Department and put to rest claims of Biden family ‘corruption’ that were hurled ‘without evidence.’” Houck then cheered CNN’s right-wingers for their well-orchestrated rage:
On Monday, Scott Jennings, Shermichael Singleton, and Brad Todd — three of the four actual, bona fide conservative commentators on CNN’s payroll — took to the airwaves to react to President Joe Biden’s blanket pardon of son Hunter for any and all crimes committed in the last 10 years and, in addition to standing their ground, went postal on this “trash” “facade” created by a bunch of “liars.”
The morning edition of CNN News Central fortunately had Scott Jennings on and, needless to say, he came locked and loaded, first noting this pardon was “a complete and utter failure by” the President and that he “never again” wants to hear liberals melting down about Donald Trump as having abused his office:
[…]
After hearing liberal commentator Karen Finney defend the pardon as a natural response to Republicans having spent years “trying to attack the President himself and go after his family,” Jennings uncorked a grab bag of leftist slogans about needing to defend democratic norms and other lies over the last four years[.] […]
As Finney whined about Jennings “hurl[ing] names,” Jennings fired back she should “stand up for yourself” and “you don’t have to defend” the pardon.
“You don’t have to die on this hill. You can say this is wrong because everybody knows that it is. Are you fine with the lying? Are you fine with him sitting before the election all year and lying to the American people? Are you fine with the lying about it,” he added.
Bonilla returned to complain that non-right-wing channels weren’t conforming to his right-wing spin:
President Joe Biden’s sudden and unexpected (by some) issuance of a broad pardon to his son Hunter continues to ripple throughout the political world. The Regime Media that so faithfully served Biden are now dutifully carrying his water in an attempt to dilute the legacy fallout that Biden will invariably suffer as a result.
Bonilla grumbled that “The Regime Media suppressed these whistleblowers when their testimony would’ve been the most impactful,” but he suppressed the fact that an FBI informant was found to be lying about alleged crimes by Hunter (which caused the MRC to stealth-correct dozens of posts).
Bonilla got in one last huff: “This story is not going away any time soon. The Regime Media’s proclivity to make inconvenient stories ‘go away’ may well be what got us here in the first place.” Like how the MRC made the lying informant story “go away”?
Day 2
After that day of full freak-out/rage mode, the MRC spent Dec. 3 pretty much the same way. Tim Graham huffed:
On Monday’s CBS Mornings Plus, they brought out former Lyndon Johnson assistant Doris Kearns Goodwin to assess Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. The 81-year-old Democrat was promoted as a nonpartisan expert, as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning historian” with six best-sellers. They oddly compared the Hunter pardon to Gerald Ford pardoning President Nixon and Abraham Lincoln pardoning deserters from the Union Army in the Civil War.
TONY DOKOUPIL: So let’s talk about Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter. You know, I think if there hadn’t been so much sanctimony around sort of, this was a miscarriage of justice and this was a raw politics at play, if he just said, I’m a dad, I’ve already lost one son, I’m 80-something years old, I’m not going to lose another to prison time, so I’m doing it. How would it go over if he did that?
This framing completely overlooks the fact that Hunter Biden was a cash cow for the entire Biden family. It pretends there was no self-interest in Biden’s actions beyond being nice to his troubled boy.
Graham completely overlooked the fact that he and his fellow right-wing activists had spent years deliberately targeting Hunter in order to destroy him, and hopefully his father in the process. Instead, he whined: “Democrats now at this late date lament the pardon only because it offers a talking point to Trump for pardoning people who committed “crimes” like walking into the Capitol for ten minutes and taking a selfie for Facebook.” But that was a crime, however minor, and Graham is effectively endorsing lawlessness if if benefits his preferred candidate.
Alex Christy whined that late-night TV hosts didn’t go all Fox News about it:
The men of late night comedy struggled on their Monday shows to reconcile their support for President Joe Biden and his decision to pardon his son, Hunter. Some hosts decided to make the story about Republicans, while others made more “Biden is old” quips, while others welcomed the news, but hoped Democrats would apply the logic behind it to ordinary people too.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert declared on The Late Show, “I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but you certainly earned that ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ mug.”
[…]
Part of the problem with people like [Jon] Stewart and [Jimmy] Kimmel is they think history began with Donald Trump, “Look, man, the Democrats made this case an example of why Americans should believe in our system. And it is hard. Democrats have the tougher road of defending our institutions and systems as being flawed but still valuable. Republicans just run on blowing this shit up. But at every turn, Democrats keep getting caught creating a purity test they can’t seem to pass themselves.”
Christy, of course, doesn’t think Trump should ever be held to the same standards he’s holding Biden.
Jorge Bonilla lashed out at another TV host:
The Regime Media have tied themselves into knots trying to spin President Joe Biden’s not-unexpected pardon of his son and business partner Hunter. The most cynical spin of the pardon to date comes from his own former White House spokesperson, MSNBC host Jen Psaki.
Watch as Psaki tries to spin away from the pardon by diminishing both its importance and the continued relevance of President Joe Biden:
[…]
In sum: yes, Joe Biden promised not to pardon Hunter, but he reneged on his promise and while it’s terrible politics, this is not so much a presidential pardon as it is a father’s love for a wayward son and who cares because Biden’s a goner anyway and isn’t Kash Patel terrible. This open, and another minute or so with Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) was the extent of Psaki’s coverage of the Biden pardon.
On the one hand, this sequence is the height of cynicism from someone who has spent the better part of the last four years lecturing America on the moral superiority of Joe Biden from her perch as his chief shill in The White House. Now that she’s moved on to Regime Media, Psaki wants to pretend that the pardon doesn’t warrant much of her attention because Biden is on his way out.
On the other hand, it wasn’t that long ago that Psaki vouched for Biden’s character on her eponymous show:
[…]
With apologies to the late Coach Denny Green: Joe Biden is who we thought he was. The pardon shows that he is who we thought he was. Regime shills like Psaki are now caught coping with how to continue to look serious while sporting massive egg on their faces. After lecturing America on how character matters and casting her former boss as a sterling example of such character, Psaki now tells us that none of it matters. On to the next.
By contrast, Bonilla would never hold Trump to the same standards, which is convenient for him..
It was Curtis Houck’s turn to push the corporate narrative:
After having spent Monday morning and evening predictably defending and spinning President Joe Biden’s pardon of his scandal-ridden son Hunter, ABC News waved goodbye to this story all together on its flagship (and superficial) morning show Good Morning America. In contrast, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today kept up the pressure, acknowledging the hullabaloo.
All three networks had segments continuing the blatant smear campaign against Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, but CBS and NBC found time to pile on the President.
“Blowback from both parties as President Biden faces criticism for the pardon of his son Hunter,” CBS co-host Tony Dokoupil declared the show’s Eye Opener.
[…]
NBC was even more blunt. Co-host Hoda Kotb teased a full story on the “growing fallout” stemming from “that controversial decision” in which Biden “went back on his word.”
Nonetheless, CBS and NBC continued their refusal to call President Biden or his administration liars for going back on their words.
Trump flip-flops all the time, but Houck would never accuse him of going back on his word (not if he wants to remain employed at the MRC, anyway).
Graham got the honor, such as it is, of writing up his boss’ appearance on a right-wing radio show:
MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared Tuesday morning on the D.C. talk radio show “O’Connor & Company” to discuss media coverage of President Biden pardoning his son Hunter on gun and tax charges. Larry O’Connor said he had “nothing but contempt for the propagandists who call themselves ‘mainstream media,’ Brent. but I have to say it’s been so amusing watching then deal with this….trying to continue to perpetuate this myth that Joe Biden is a man with such great integrity and honesty.”
Bozell agreed: “He’s making them look like fools and they know it! They’ve spent years denying that there was a Hunter Biden problem,” suppressing the Hunter laptop in the 2020 campaign. He underlined Hunter had about 20 LLCs or shell companies to obscure all his ill-gotten gains from foreign business partners.
He said when Joe pardons Hunter, he’s also pardoning himself. “If the media had a lick — a lick! — of decency, they would have said this [pardon] was outrageous, would have said this guy had escaped justice, and the entire family has escaped justice, but instead they call it a part of his legacy!” That this is a “great family thing to do.”
If Bozell had a lick — a lick! — of decency, he wouldn’t have censored the fact that his son eagerly participated in the Capitol riot that he endorsed, hiding his crimes from MRC readers.
Nicholas Fondacaro made the pardon the center of his daily hate-watch of “The View”:
With dissenter Alyssa Farah Griffin conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s episode of The View with no explanation, after she called out President Biden for lying about pardoning is son Hunter, the more far-left members of the cast whined and lashed out at those who dared to call Biden a liar. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg argued that such talk was “hurtful” to the country, and co-host Sunny Hostin was engaging in supreme whataboutism.
After playing a series of soundbites of congressional Democrats upset with Biden for lying about not pardoning his son, Goldberg lashed out at Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) for saying Biden’s lying was “hurtful for the American people.”
“You know what I think is hurtful for the American people? I think what is hurtful is denying that if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander. He is the president of the United States,” she decried.
Flaunting her ignorance of the pardon process, Goldberg proclaimed that “it is his right and he doesn’t have to explain to anybody, this is his right as president. He can pardon — If he wants to pardon Bozo the Clown, he can pardon Bozo the Clown!”
“So, I’m not sure why, again, people are clutching their pearls – while the left is clutching their pearls because did y’all forget all the stuff that we said was going on or that doesn’t matter?” she huffed.
Fondacaro didn’t explain what Goldberg supposedly got wrong about the pardon process, or why Biden’s actions should be treated much more harshly than anything Trump has done, which includes inciting a riot.
The day in Hunter freakouts was concluded by Mark Finkelstein:
The liberal line on President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter was clear: The Devil Donald Trump made him do it! On Tuesday’s CNN This Morning, former Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield said that Biden’s pardon on Hunter was “totally defensible,” given Trump’s alleged plans to go after opponents in the new administration.
No mention, of course, of Trump’s repeated vow to pardon everyone convicted of crimes in the Capitol riot regardless of demonstrated guilt.