Hunter Biden’s conviction undermines Trump’s complaints about justice system, liberals say

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 such as CNN, The New York Times and the Associated Press, along with journalists such as CNN’s Jim Acosta and NBC News’ Chuck Todd, said that a conviction against President Biden’s own son shows that the justice system is not armed against Trump, who said his recent conviction was government persecution.
“I think it really hurts the Trump campaign’s ability to simply reject his 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 the fact that Hunter Biden was convicted on federal charges this week shows that former President Trump has not been the target of a “weaponized” justice system as he claims.
After Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records late last month, the former president said: “This was a rigged and shameful trial. The true verdict will be given to the people on November 5.”
“This was a rigged decision from day one. With a conflicted judge who should never have been allowed to try this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is far from over,” Trump told a group of reporters outside. the Manhattan courtroom.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden was found guilty Tuesday of making false statements in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement relating to information required to be maintained by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an illegal 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 very hard to create this weaponry, and this has been a Republican talking point for a long time.”
He added that “there has never been any evidence to support what they have said.”
“If they’re hoping this will persuade people in the middle, I don’t think Trump’s argument about the justice system will be very persuasive now after this,” Todd said.
An article from the New York Times Journalists Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold made the same point, writing that Trumpworld deflated after Hunter Biden was found guilty because it didn’t fit their story that Trump was the target.
“Many Trump allies had been secretly supporting an acquittal,” the trio wrote. “The talking points wrote themselves: It would have been even more evidence that the US justice system was rigged in favor of the Bidens and against the Trumps. Tuesday’s guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative.”
The article also quoted an anonymous Trump ally who claimed that private retentions in Trump’s world revealed that “as soon as it became clear that Hunter Biden’s gun case could not be used against President Biden, the topic disappeared from the radar of political messages”.
Acosta read a Times article while guest hosting CNN’s “Laura Coates Live”: “There were discussions about how much Hunter Biden’s acquittal would help Mr. Trump, potentially raising tens of millions of additional dollars, as they planned to cite him as “more evidence that the justice system was rigged.”
Acosta looked at the camera and said “Oops.” He later aired footage of Democrats accepting Biden’s conviction.
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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden walk outside the federal courthouse as his trial on criminal weapons charges continues, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., on June 11, 2024. (REUTERS/Hannah Beier)
The Associated Press He similarly reported that Hunter Biden’s conviction “damaged” Trump’s narrative.
“The GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target his political opponents has been undermined by the fact that the Biden-led Justice Department prosecuted the president’s son, and Biden refused to stop the investigation or pardon Hunter Biden,” he said.
NBC News reporters Jonathan Allen, Allan Smith and Katherine Doyle published one piece just hours after Biden’s verdict, titled “Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict upends a major Trump talking point.” He noted that “some Republicans” believe the verdict “is a blow to one of Trump’s favorite talking points, and a boost to Biden’s claim that he respects the rule of law.”
“But some Republicans say it will be difficult to convince voters that Biden has weaponized the justice system when his own son has now been beaten,” the article said.
Republican donor Dan Eberhart told the outlet, “Hunter Biden’s conviction definitely weakens the argument.”
“For me, the justice system is working,” he added.
An anonymous Republican strategist said: “This, at the very least, slows the momentum and clear argument the Trump campaign previously had about Biden’s weaponization of the justice system.”
They added: “It’s less of a bumper sticker than before.”
A CNN analysis article Reporter Stephen Collinson also brandished this narrative.
“If Biden had been acquitted, Republicans surely would 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 demolished another of his political arguments.”

Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower on Thursday, May 30, 2024 after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)
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“Hunter Biden’s 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 legal system weaponized by a Department of Justice that targets Republicans exclusively.”
The Trump campaign’s 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 raised dozens of millions of dollars from China. , Russia and Ukraine Corrupt Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden family’s criminal empire will come to an end on November 5, and never again will a Biden sell out government access for personal gain.”
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