Jonathan Chait: “Hunter Biden’s conviction in Delaware over a minor charge is significant mainly because it blows to smithereens the arguments Republicans have made on behalf of Donald Trump. There’s the small claim that Trump didn’t receive a fair trial, that blue-state juries can’t render impartial verdicts on famous political figures. Analysts predicted a jury in Delaware, a tiny state where everybody seems to personally know and adore the Biden family, would go easy on his son. But this failed to transpire.”
“Most important is the idea that Joe Biden is personally ‘weaponizing’ the justice system to target Trump. House Republicans devoted a hearing last week to pressing their unsubstantiated claim that Biden had orchestrated Alvin Bragg’s moves, as ‘evidenced’ by Bragg’s hiring of an attorney with DOJ experience, a move they seem to believe is unusual…”
“To hold this theory together — which, again, is the belief held by a supermajority of Republicans, not just the Glenn Beck audience — you have to believe Biden is directing the activities of local prosecutors while exerting no control at all over the Justice Department of the branch of government he presides over.”
