Democrats and liberals don’t want political columnists to write about President Biden’s wayward son, Hunter; meanwhile, Republicans and conservatives don’t want us to write about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s ultra-conservative wife, Virginia. So, as an equal opportunity offender, I’m writing about both of them today.
Let’s start with Hunter Biden. The Wall Street Journal reported last Tuesday that “a federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden is gaining momentum as prosecutors gather information from several of his associates about the sources of his foreign income, including from China and Ukraine,” while his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, oversaw Ukraine policy for ex-President Obama.
The mainstream media, led by the liberal New York Times, mounted a coordinated campaign to bury the ugly Hunter Biden story and attribute it to “Russian disinformation.” But late last month “the newspaper of record” finally told the truth about the president’s drug-addled son, albeit in the 24th paragraph of a story that ran on inside pages. “The Times has seen the emails… that appear to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware (computer) repair shop. Those emails were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.”
So there you have it. The New York Times authenticated Hunter Biden’s emails, which revealed details of his shady business dealings with Burisma, a corrupt Ukrainian energy company that paid him millions of dollars because his last name is Biden. As Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York wrote last week, “Smoking gun emails reveal how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessmen to VP dad.” What else do we need to know?
Those toxic emails were first revealed by the conservative New York Post in October 2020, but the Times and other mainstream media outlets dismissed them as “Russian disinformation” for two years. Nevertheless, Hunter Biden’s business partner, Tony Bobulinski, testified under oath that 10 percent of their ill-gotten gains were to be shared with the “Big Guy.” Who was the Big Guy? Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas
On the other side of the political spectrum, we have the troubling case of Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the right-wing activist wife of very conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ginni Thomas is under fire for a series of text messages she sent to ex-President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, urging him to find a way to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. “The Majority knows Biden and the Left is (sic) attempting the greatest Heist of our History,” she wrote. In other words, she was endorsing Trump’s “Big Lie” – that he won the 2020 election “by a landslide.” He didn’t, however, because we know he lost to Biden by more than 5 million votes.
Based on Ms. Thomas’s text messages, liberal Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Justice Thomas shouldn’t take part in any future cases about the Jan. 6 investigation or the 2024 presidential election, if Trump decides to run again. The conservative Wall Street Journal disagreed, asserting that “Mrs. Thomas’s text messages are embarrassing, but… they are no reason for Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the Trump administration.”
My favorite attorney, good friend and fellow columnist, Jim Hartman, rejected the “over-the-top” demand that Justice Thomas recuse himself from all 2020 election cases, but told me he “should recuse himself in future cases involving any communications from Ginni Thomas as evidence, or as a witness.” No need for a blanket recusal, only on cases involving the justice’s outspoken wife.
So, did I offend everyone who deserves to be offended?
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.
