Prominent liberal pundits and media outlets have argued that the recent guilty verdict against Hunter Biden undermines former President Trump’s claim that the justice system has been weaponized against him.
Outlets like CNN, The New York Times and the Associated Press, along with journalists like CNN’s Jim Acosta and NBC News’ Chuck Todd, said that a conviction against President Biden’s own son proves that the justice system isn’t weaponized against Trump, who has said that his own recent conviction was government persecution.
“I think it really damages the Trump campaign’s ability to just wave away their conviction,” Todd, NBC News’ chief political analyst, said Tuesday after Hunter Biden’s conviction.
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Liberal media pundits have been arguing that because Hunter Biden was convicted on federal charges this week, it proves former President Trump hasn’t been targeted by a “weaponized” justice system as he claims.
After Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records late last month, the former president said, “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people.”
“This was a rigged decision right from day one. With a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over,” Trump told a gaggle of reporters outside the Manhattan courtroom.
Hunter Biden, meanwhile, was found guilty Tuesday of making false statements in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
“Politically, this is a big blow to Trump,” Todd told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera. “He’s trying so hard to create this weaponization, and this has been a Republican talking point for so long.”
He added that there has “never been any evidence to support what they’ve said.”
“If they’re hoping this persuades people in the middle, I don’t think Trump’s argument about the justice system is very persuasive now in the wake of this,” Todd said.
A New York Times article by reporters Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold made the same point, writing that Trumpworld was deflated after Hunter Biden was found guilty, because it did not fit their story of Trump being targeted.
“Many Trump allies had been secretly rooting for an acquittal,” the trio wrote. “The talking points wrote themselves: It would have been yet more evidence that the United States justice system was rigged in favor of the Bidens and against the Trumps. Tuesday’s guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative.”
The piece also quoted an anonymous Trump ally who claimed private conservations in Trump world revealed that “as soon as it was clear that the Hunter Biden gun case couldn’t be used against President Biden, the topic fell off the radar for political messaging.”
Acosta read from the Times article while guest hosting CNN’s “Laura Coates Live”: “There had been discussions about how much an acquittal of Hunter Biden would help Mr. Trump, potentially raising tens of millions of additional dollars as they planned to cite it as more evidence the justice system was rigged.”
Acosta looked into the camera and said “Oops.” He then aired footage of Democrats accepting the Biden conviction.
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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden walk outside the federal court as his trial on criminal gun charges continues, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., June 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Hannah Beier)
The Associated Press similarly reported that the Hunter Biden conviction “hurt” Trump’s narrative.
“The GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target political opponents has been hurt by the Biden-led Justice Department prosecuting the president’s son — with Biden declining to stop the investigation or pardon Hunter Biden,” it stated.
NBC News reporters Jonathan Allen, Allan Smith and Katherine Doyle published a piece just hours after the Biden verdict, titled “Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict upends a top Trump talking point.” It noted that “some Republicans” believe the verdict “is a major blow to one of Trump’s favorite talking points — and a boost to Biden’s case that he respects the rule of law.”
“But some Republicans say that it will be hard to convince voters that Biden has turned the justice system into a weapon when his own son has now been struck,” the piece read.
GOP donor Dan Eberhart told the outlet, “Hunter Biden’s conviction definitely weakens the argument.”
“To me, the justice system is working,” he added.
An anonymous GOP strategist said, “It, at a minimum, slows the momentum and the clear-cut argument that the Trump campaign previously had about Biden’s weaponization of the justice system.”
They added, “It’s less of a bumper-sticker than it was before.”
A CNN analysis piece by senior reporter Stephen Collinson brandished this narrative as well.
“Had Biden been acquitted, Republicans would surely have argued that a biased jury in a state where everyone seems to know the first family had proven their point,” he wrote. “But the guilty verdict blew another of their political arguments out of the water.”
Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower, Thursday, May 30, 2024 after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)
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“The Hunter Biden verdict also contradicted the central rationale of Trump’s multiple legal defenses in his four criminal cases, several civil matters and his entire presidential campaign,” Collinson continued. “This is the false notion that he is a victim of a weaponized legal system by a Justice Department that exclusively targets Republicans.”
Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the Hunter Biden verdict in a statement, saying, “This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine. Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”
