Joe Biden's Relationship With Merrick Garland Is Souring

Joe Biden thinks that if he hadn’t run for president, Hunter Biden’s current legal problems would never have happened. And he’s a little ticked off about that. 

"In private, no issue is more likely to anger or sadden President Biden than attacks on his son Hunter, according to people close to the president who have seen his moods shift when there's bad news about Hunter,” reports Axios. "The 81-year-old president has suggested to close associates that if he hadn't run in 2020, Hunter wouldn't be facing criminal prosecutions or be the target of daily stories by conservative media — all while trying to stay sober and rebuild his life."

The report also says that the ongoing criminal investigations into Hunter Biden have put a strain on Biden’s relationship with Attorney General Merrick Garland. Joe must have expected Garland to do a better job protecting Hunter, and perhaps that was a reasonable expectation. 

Think about it. Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, who infamously referred to himself as Obama’s wingman, went to extraordinary lengths to protect Obama from oversight and accountability. Dozens of inspectors general accused the administration of obstructing investigations. Surely, Biden must have expected that Garland would be his wingman as well and would protect him and his troubled son from oversight and accountability

Garland has been Biden’s wingman, turning the Department of Justice into a weaponized and partisan agency. Frankly, it was working until a federal judge scoffed at the sweetheart plea deal Hunter was offered a couple of months ago. Had it not been for that, Hunter would likely have gotten the clean slate Joe Biden had hoped to get for him. Hunter has just been indicted on nine new federal charges and could face up to 17 years in prison if convicted.

There's only so much that his wingman, Merrick Garland, can do to protect him. Trump's first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, took a lot of flak for recusing himself from the ridiculous Russian collusion investigation, but he did that to protect the outcome from accusations of politicization.

But what really makes Joe Biden’s lament so hilarious is that he is technically to blame for Hunter’s problems. Hunter was clearly hiding the foreign income that he got by, as you all know, selling influence to his powerful father.

While it’s true that Joe Biden’s candidacy in 2020 opened Hunter Biden up to enhanced scrutiny, that was largely because of the connections between what he was doing and his father. Why was Joe Biden bragging about using a $1 billion loan to Ukraine as leverage to get Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired? To protect his son, who sat on the board Burisma, which Shokin was investigating. Why was Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, making $1 million a year, when he had no experience in the energy sector? Because the job was essentially a bribe in exchange for influence with Joe Biden when he was vice president. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But let’s be honest. Joe Biden’s presidency didn’t put the target on Hunter’s back; by playing a role in the influence-peddling schemes, Joe Biden did.