NY Times Writer Hammers Liberals For Opposing Any Criticism of Joe Or Hunter Biden: ‘You’ll Be Likened To An Anchor For Fox News’
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File
New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni wrote a column on Thursday imploring Democrats not to ignore all criticisms of President Joe Biden especially as it relates to his youngest son, Hunter Biden.
Hunter recently reached a plea deal with the Department of Justice relating to misdemeanors charges on tax evasion and one gun felony. Days after the agreement was reached, the president’s son was seen on the lawn of the White House at a state dinner attended by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Bruni praised the president for defending his son even as Republicans in Congress make him the focus committee investigations, but noted that Hunter’s presence at the dinner was inappropriate.
“Observe that it’s one thing — a noble, beautiful thing — for him to give steadfast support and unconditional love to his profoundly troubled son, but that it’s another for that son to attend a state dinner days after he had cut a deal with federal prosecutors on tax and gun charges,” Bruni writes. “Many of your liberal acquaintances will shush and shame you: Speak no ill of Joe Biden! That’s an unaffordable luxury. You’re playing into his MAGA adversaries’ hands.”
The opinion writer goes on to add that Democrats so keen to ignore any criticism of Biden heading into the 2024 election are creating a “dishonest” and “dangerous” political environment.
Note that Biden seems less physically peppy and verbally precise than in years past and suggest that it might be best, for him and for continued Democratic control of the White House, if he let Democrats choose a different 2024 nominee. You’ll be likened to an anchor for Fox News. You’ll be chided for age discrimination. Never mind that you’re examining his behavior, not the year on his birth certificate. You’re being counterproductive.
You’ll be asked: What do Hunter Biden and diminished vim matter next to the menace of Donald Trump and a Republican Party in his lawless, nihilistic thrall? That’s a fair question — to a point. But past that point, it’s dishonest and dangerous.
Bruni adds that if Donald Trump regained control of the White House it would be devastating for the country; therefore, Democrats should have open discussions about nominating a candidate in the strongest position to beat the likely Republican nominee.
“Likewise, it’s possible — no, necessary — to have nuanced conversations about Biden’s and his administration’s mix of virtues and vices,” He writes. “If a big part of the horror of Trump is his estrangement from and perversion of truth, how is the proper or even strategic response to gild or cloak truth and declare it subservient to a desired political end?”
Moreover, Bruni labeled House Republicans “fixation” on Hunter Biden as “deranged,” but notes it would it would be wrong of Democrats to “ignore Hunter Biden entirely.” While Democratic partisans urging total silence regarding the younger Biden “are doing as much to feed suspicions as to quell them.”
“We do best as a profession — and all of us do best as a democracy and a society — when we hold everyone accountable, regardless of the special circumstances, and when we’re honest across the board,” Bruni concludes. “To act otherwise is to send the message that all is gamesmanship and that integrity is for suckers. That’s probably not how we defeat Trump. It’s more likely how he defeats us, long before and long after whatever happens in November 2024.”
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