OPINION:
There is Bernie Madoff-level government corruption in Washington. There is Clinton Foundation-level grift in politics. And there is Anthony Weiner-level sleaze wherever the media, government and politics collide.
And then there is Hunter Biden.
Seriously, what does Hunter Biden have to do to become a scandal around here?
How about cheating on his wife and children to sleep with his dead brother’s widow? Nope. That just spawned waves of pity over the tragic loss of his brother.
President Trump once famously joked that he could go out into the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and “wouldn’t lose any voters.”
While Mr. Trump never actually shot anyone on Fifth Avenue, he was accused of so many worse crimes by the Democrats and the media during his time in office: Russian stooge. Racist. Rapist. Gasser of protesters. Murderous insurrectionist.
All fantasy and Mr. Trump was accused of all of it — often in extensive collusion with U.S. government intelligence services. Not only did Mr. Trump not lose any voters, he gained some 13 million more in the 2020 election.
Which brings us back to Hunter Biden and how curious it is that he is shrouded in this cult-like protection by the media.
Mr. Trump spoke for millions of Americans and secured tremendous accomplishments for them. Hunter Biden, on the other hand, speaks for no one and has never accomplished anything.
Yet, somehow there is this religious hysteria among the media to cover-up his misdeeds no matter what he gets caught doing.
Hunter Biden uses incendiary, racist, anti-black and anti-Asian language casually with family and colleagues. It would be enough to destroy a political career or get a child kicked out of school. But Hunter Biden? Hardly a peep.
Hunter Biden gets caught using his father’s powerful position as vice president of the United States to secure lucrative contracts with international concerns — including our global adversaries. No big deal.
Naked pictures, sex tapes, crack pipes, sleeping with hookers, sleeping with crack pipes — it’s all out there. What happens to Hunter Biden? He gets a $2 million book deal.
Now — finally — Hunter Biden claims to have accomplished something. Art.
Using a metal pipe about the size of a glass crack pipe, Hunter Biden blows some kind of mixture of paint and alcohol onto special paper to create colorful blotches. It is the sort of thing you would tape to the fridge door if your kindergarten child created it with finger paints.
But Hunter Biden? It’s a generational wealth windfall.
“For years I wouldn’t call myself an artist,” Hunter Biden told one newspaper earlier this year. “Now I feel comfortable saying it.”
Dutifully, the art world was “floored,” as one New York art dealer put it. That art dealer predicted that Mr. Biden’s works could fetch as much as $1 million.
That same dealer admitted that the prices Hunter Biden could expect are at least a 1000-percent mark-up because his father is president.
“He’s the president’s son,” the dealer said. “Everybody would want a piece of that.”
Nice work — if you can get it.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times.
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