IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO HATE JOE BIDEN BECAUSE OF HUNTER'S STRUGGLES, YOU'RE ASKING MANY OF THEM TO HATE THEMSELVES

Desperate to turn Hunter Biden into an issue in the 2022 midterms, right-wing leakers, presuambly in law enforcement, have released a new audio snippet to the Daily Mail, which has published it under this headline:

EXCLUSIVE: 'You gotta get some help.' Listen to Joe Biden's tearful voicemail plea to Hunter revealing he knew his son was having a drug-fueled meltdown at the time he bought a gun - and lied about being a drug abuser on purchase form

I really don't understand what these people think they're accomplishing. From the story:

Joe Biden knew about Hunter's drug-fueled meltdown at the time his son bought a gun and lied about being a drug user on the sworn purchase form, a voicemail from the president to his son reveals.

Biden sounds close to tears in the voicemail left on Hunter's abandoned laptop on October 15 - three days after Hunter bought the gun and lied about being a drug addict - begging him to get help.

'It's Dad. I called to tell you I love you. I love you more than the whole world pal,' Joe said in the October 15 message. 'You gotta get some help. I know you don't know what to do, I don't either.'

Listen to this. It's heartbreaking:




It certainly looks as if Hunter Biden lied on a firearm transaction record when he said he wasn't using illegal drugs. If he's indicted on that charge, I won't be surprised. And the story says, unsurprisingly, that he wasn't careful with the gun -- he left it in an unlocked car and his then-girlfriend tossed it in a public trash can, where it was found by a homeless man.

But that's Hunter Biden. It's not Joe Biden. Joe Biden is the heartsick father, and I think anyone with an ounce of humanity -- which excludes most Republicans -- can relate to how he feels here.

What Republicans don't understand is that millions of Americans have had substance-abuse problems or have tried to help friends or relatives who have them. In order to hate Joe Biden because he couldn't snap his fingers and instantly get his son clean, you have to hate yourself, if you've been in this position. In order to conclude that anyone with a child like Hunter is a bad person, you have to conclude that you're a bad person if you have a child like Hunter, or that friends and neighbors who have children suffering with substance abuse problems are bad people. Most Americans don't think like that. They know it's hard to help someone like Hunter turn his lfe around.

To Republicans, of course, Hunter Biden is both a drug-damaged screw-up and a sinister master criminal, working hand in glove with his father, an addle-pated dementia patient who's also a slick crime boss. While it's true that Hunter Biden might be guilty of a number of crimes, it's obvious to most people that this is a story of sadness, not evil.