Is Donald Trump rooting for Hunter Biden to be acquitted on charges of illegal gun possession, even after years of ranting that the “Biden crime family” belongs in jail? It would make a certain twisted sense: “See, the fix was in all along!” the former president could claim if Hunter is exonerated. “Just like my trial was rigged! Joe Biden has corrupted the judicial system!”
Maybe the MAGA base would buy it. The facts, of course, make the argument ludicrous. There’s no evidence whatsoever that the president attempted to influence the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution of Trump. Quite the opposite: Joe Biden’s Department of Justice declined to pursue charges related to the Stormy Daniels hush money allegations, while it has indicted New Jersey Democratic senator Robert Menendez (on bribery charges and other accusations) and Texas Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar (on charges of bribery, money laundering, and acting as a foreign agent), and just finished presenting its case against Biden’s younger son in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom. “The Merrick Garland Justice Department isn’t going after our enemies,” a top Democratic strategist says. “They go after the people who they think have broken the law.”
Some prominent Democrats, including Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, have been pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans decrying the Trump prosecution as partisan while Hunter Biden stands trial. You will not, however, hear that point being made by the Biden campaign itself. The quickest way to shorten a conversation with someone in Bidenworld has always been to bring up Hunter’s troubles. He remains a sensitive subject, for both political and personal reasons. When I asked Ted Kaufman, Joe Biden’s longtime friend and his successor as a Delaware senator, about the complicated line between presidenting and parenting, the answer was quick and curt. “I’m not going to get into that,” Kauffman said. “Let me make something clear: He has demonstrated time and time and time again how much he cares for Hunter. He’s one of the most incredible fathers.”
Joe Biden’s decency and empathy should indeed help his cause, particularly in contrast to Trump’s lack of both qualities. Yet voters, understandably, care most about what the White House can do for them. That’s why the economy, immigration, abortion, and democracy so often rank among the top priorities in the presidential campaign. So Biden’s team would be fine with Trump’s campaign burning up more time and energy on issues that motivate only MAGA. “How many people do you think are going to the ballot box and voting based on Hunter? Like, zero-point-zero,” a Biden insider says. “Voters vote on what’s better for them and their lives.”
In the weeks since Trump’s conviction on 34 counts, another theory has been bandied about inside Bidenworld: In a race that will likely be decided by a sliver of votes in a handful of swing states, the more Trump and allies like Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly fulminate about retribution—or about using the federal government to go after not just the Bidens but perhaps Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—the more the American judicial system itself could become a contributing, indirect issue for voters who say they are still on the fence.
Trump’s authoritarian rants, inflamed by his anger over his Manhattan conviction, can help the Biden campaign amplify two of its existing, important themes: that the Republican candidate cares only about himself, and that his reelection would return chaos to the most powerful office in government. The key in successfully selling that message, however, will be connecting Trump’s norm-destroying rage to his ability to damage everyday American life, in areas from reducing job growth and access to affordable health care to worsening climate change and the tax gap between the rich and everyone else. “Yes, I want Democrats to be talking about Trump’s conviction,” says Jim Messina, who managed Obama’s successful 2012 reelection run and is an outside adviser to Biden’s 2024 reelection bid. “I also think you can walk and chew gum at the same time. We’re still losing the economic argument. Hillary’s great failing in 2016 was not that she didn’t make Trump’s behavior clear—it was not making people understand why it hurts them economically. And we’ve just got to do that.”
What a jury decides about Hunter Biden is unlikely to factor into that campaign equation. But Trump’s threat to aggressively weaponize the judicial system just might.
