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| Joe and Hunter Biden share an embrace (NBC) |
If you think you have already heard the nuttiest public statements postmodern Republicans can offer, wait until you read the conspiracy theories that surfaced yesterday after First Son Hunter Biden was found guilty on drug- and gun-related charges in Delaware federal court. The utterances are so jumbled that I'm not sure even the GOPers who made them know what they were trying to say. But this apparently is what passes for "conservative thought" in the Year 2024.
Any normal person, one who still has a sense of shame, probably would have refrained from babbling on a subject where they could not string together a coherent thought. But shame, it seems, is in scant supply among Republicans these days -- not a surprise when you consider that their presumptive presidential nominee is Donald Trump -- so you wind up with a jumbo-sized mass of jumbled words that leave an average reader shaking his head in bewilderment after trying in vain to figure out what it all means.
Talia Jane, of The New Republic (TNR), tries her best to provide some clarity under the headline "Hunter Biden Verdict Sparks Unbelievable MAGA Conspiracy Theories; The far right’s reaction to Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is truly unbelievable":
Conservatives are reacting to Hunter Biden’s felony conviction yesterday in seemingly the only way they know how: Claiming it’s part of an elaborate conspiracy by the Department of Justice to weaken their outrage over Trump’s own felony convictions.
The reactions from the MAGAsphere were practically instantaneous, led by former White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, who declared that Hunter Biden’s conviction is part of a plot to avoid pursuing foreign-agent charges that would lead back to his father, President Joe Biden.
“The gun charges are a giant misdirection,” asserted Miller. “An easy op for DOJ to sell to a pliant media that is all too willing to be duped. Don’t be gaslit. This is all about protecting Joe Biden and only Joe Biden.” [Sounds like somebody has been watching too many spy movies.]
Miller is not alone in his meandering thoughts, as Talia Jane explains:
Similar to Miller, End Wokeness, a far-right account with more than a million followers that frequently disseminates racist and conspiratorial content, opted to seize Biden’s conviction by pivoting to Ukraine conspiracies, announcing “Hunter Biden is a red herring. The real person of interest in the Ukraine bribery/laundering is the Big Guy. We all know exactly who that is.” The Joe Biden-Ukraine conspiracy alleges that during his time as vice president, Biden took a bribe to pressure Ukraine away from investigating a gas company to protect his son who sat on the board, a conspiracy led by an FBI informant who was recently charged for fabricating the whole story.
“Hunter Biden operated as an unregistered foreign agent and profited millions. The gun case was nothing more than smoke and mirrors from the Biden DOJ,” Texas Representative Lance Gooden declared on X (formerly Twitter).
Some Republicans make Stephen Miller sound like a voice of reason on the subject -- and that is hard to do, on any subject. Talia Jane writes:
Other far-right influencers have opted to paint Biden’s conviction as a tactic by the Justice Department to help them swallow the bitter pill about their dear leader’s own conviction. “Hunter got a fair trial, unlike Trump,” wrote conservative activist Tom Fitton. Conservative influencer Tim Young claimed he “predicted the Hunter Biden verdict” and linked to an interview he gave to a right-wing media outlet where he claimed the routine prosecution of Biden’s gun charge was a plot to create an “illusion of balance” following Trump’s guilty verdict. Young’s “prediction” does not include Biden being found guilty on all counts. Charlie Kirk, who leads the white nationalist-friendly Turning Point USA, said the conviction was the result of a “fake trial to make the Justice system appear ‘balanced’” and advised his followers, “Don’t fall for it.”
Representative Matt Gaetz, in contrast, had relatively little to say, writing off the conviction as “kinda dumb tbh.” That may be due to the fact that the last time he tried joining the hating Hunter Biden bandwagon, it blew up in his face.
The conservative reactions manage to be simultaneously totally unsurprising and completely unexpected: Conservatives have desperately sought to take down Hunter Biden, viewing his messy past as a linchpin to bring about his father’s demise. That they’d adamantly avoid celebrating Biden’s conviction seems purely motivated by fear of reinforcing their already apparent hypocrisy.
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