On their flagship Friday morning news shows, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC spent nearly 12 and a half minutes (12:24) on the latest indictment facing Hunter Biden with nine new charges relating to his failure to pay taxes and instead on drugs, hookers, and vacations. While the liberal media seem increasingly comfortable with throwing Hunter overboard, they’ve made sure to continue sheltering his father, President Joe Biden.
ABC’s Good Morning America had over half this tally with three full segments and a news brief for six minutes and 26 seconds. In the lead-off segment, chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas said Special Counsel David Weiss’s indictment “la[id] out chapter and verse some of the most troubling aspects of Hunter Biden’s life.”
Thomas went right to the sordid details:
Weiss accusing the President’s son of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016-2019. All done, according to Weiss, during a time when Biden was living in extravagant lifestyle. Prosecutors claim he spent his money “on drugs, escorts, and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing…In short, everything but his taxes.” Those expenses include more than $600,000 in payments to various women, and another $397,000 on clothing and accessories, and more than $180,000 on adult entertainment, including porn.
Thomas was the lone network correspondent to even point out the most damning part of it all; that the Biden Justice Department finally admitted the President’s son committed crimes involving his foreign business dealings: “According to the special counsel, Hunter Biden earned millions of dollars from foreign entities in Ukraine, Romania, and China, noting his expenditures increased as his income increased, leading him to spend ‘wildly.’”
Nonetheless, Thomas fretted the charges came despite Hunter having “admitted many of his shortcomings in his recent memoir, tying many of his poor decisions to a crack cocaine addiction that had gone out of control” with his “business dealings and personal failings have been fodder for Republicans”.
Thomas also defended the President by huffing and puffing (and clearly not examining the dozens of revelations about the Biden family in recent years) that “House Republicans have launched impeachment proceedings against President Biden…without any evidence of wrongdoing”.
Having previously questioned Weiss’s first case against Hunter, ABC chief legal analyst and NewsNation host Dan Abrams said Hunter’s “in a tough spot” as “these cases can be hard to defend” given the hard evidence prosecutors have in financial crimes.
“These are very serious cases, and I think that President Biden, at some point, is going to have to think long and hard about the possibility of a pardon,” he added.
NBC’s Today clocked in way back in second with a single, three-minute-and-17-second segment from Justice correspondent Valerie Jarrett, the daughter of Obama confidante and Obama-Biden official Valerie Jarrett.
Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine tax-related charges, including three felony counts, according to documents filed in a federal court in Los Angeles. @LauraAJarrett breaks down all the details. pic.twitter.com/LHUmeDee70
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 8, 2023
Along with co-host Savannah Guthrie stating plainly in a tease that “legal charges” are “mounting” against Hunter, Jarrett fretted that “a bunch of new details” are “all out in the open” that “are sure to kick up a political firestorm” as President Biden faces reelection (click “expand”):
Ever since his plea deal with prosecutors fell apart over the summer, questions have been swirling about this investigation into Hunter Biden and where it might be going. His tax issues? They’re well known at this point, but now a bunch of new details all out in the open.
(….)
A new indictment charging Biden with failing to pay his taxes on time and, instead, spending millions of dollars on “an extravagant lifestyle.” A federal jury in Los Angeles indicting Hunter Biden on nine counts, including three felonies. The 56-page indictment saying Biden spent millions between 2016 and 2020, but “the defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, and exotic cars and other things of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes.” Prosecutors laying out a devasting portrait of Hunter Biden including false business deductions. In one example, prosecutors alleging that Biden wired an employee money and labeled it a “golf member deposit” when, according to prosecutors it was “used to purchase a membership in a sex club.”
(….)
President Joe Biden is not mentioned in this new indictment, but the allegations are sure to kick up a political firestorm. The President has held firm in his support of his son in the past.
(….)
And now the possibility of his son going to trial in two places in the midst of his reelection bid.
Guthrie and Jarrett also hit on an important point some could diagnose as unseemly with the indictment spelling doom for any possible Hunter Biden testimony before Congress given any defendant’s concern of saying something that could be used against them in court.
CBS Mornings also only had a single segment, but it clocked in even further back at two minutes and 41 seconds. That said, investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge had the story and thus it was free of any politicking.
Herridge had a new angle as she began by revealing “Hunter Biden's legal team tried to meet with federal prosecutors earlier this week, but the meeting never happened.”
She continued, noting the “sprawling indictment” was proof Weiss’s “investigation is ongoing” (click “expand”):
HERRIDGE: The sprawling indictment brought by Special Counsel David Weiss, alleges Hunter Biden engaged in a four- year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in federal taxes.
CBS NEWS LEGAL ANALYST JESSICA LEVINSON: Hunter Biden is facing serious charges here.
HERRIDGE: The President’s son is accused of taking false business reductions to reduce his tax liability. The indictment alleges he spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and exotic cars.
LEVINSON: One of the things I think that jumps out from the indictment is that Hunter Biden, allegedly knew what he was doing.
(….)
HERRIDGE: The new tax charges were filed in California, because he lived there when the alleged crimes were committed. In a statement, Hunter Biden’s attorney said, “based on the fact the law if Hunter's name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware and now California would not have been brought.”
LEVINSON: This is what he wanted to avoid with the plea deal. He wanted to be able to avoid jail time.
Herridge later concluded in part by highlighting the possibility that, if convicted and sentenced in full, Hunter Biden “could face up to 17 years in prison.”
Exit question: How long before the liberal networks make this story disappear?
