The Hunter Biden saga is over

Back when the mainstream media refused to take the bait and run with Rudy Giuliani’s obviously manufactured phony scandals about Hunter Biden during the 2020 election, it was the end of the Hunter Biden story – at least politically speaking. The general public wasn’t going to be interested in hearing any other storyline about him, which meant the Republicans were never going to be able to get any real media attention by talking about him. And now the Hunter Biden saga is over entirely.

Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty today, on minor tax charges and a nonviolent gun charge, in exchange for no prison time. These are precisely the kinds of low level charges that the average person could get a no-prison plea deal on, if they’ve since cleaned up their messes. He didn’t get any special treatment. He simply took his lumps.

Moreover, the general public can now see that the only charges against Hunter Biden were for low level boring stuff. There was obviously nothing to all that nonsense about Hunter Biden and Ukraine, or Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and Ukraine, or whatever laugh out loud fiction the Republicans are hyping this week. Those narratives weren’t getting the Republicans anywhere to begin with, and now they’re wiped out entirely.

Republicans will claim how unfair it is that Donald Trump’s criminal charges have him facing prison. But that merely draws a clear contrast between the low level charges that Hunter Biden was facing, and the Espionage Act charges that Trump is facing. And the more Republicans put the words “Trump” and “prison” in the same sentence, the more nonviable they’re making him in the eyes of the general public. So if they want to keep whining about it, they’re welcome to.

But as for the rest of us, the Hunter Biden story is over in political terms. It’s done. I don’t expect to ever have to write about him again. And I would urge the rest of you to resist taking the bait on social media. Republicans desperately want the topic to be Hunter Biden. As long as you’re “explaining” his plea deal or “debunking” their claims about him, you’re playing into their hands. After today there’s really no reason any of you should ever need to mention Hunter Biden again. Let’s just move to topics that are actually relevant to the political landscape.