Commentary
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Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
Let’s talk about the latest controversy around Donald Trump Jr. Donald Trump Jr. on Easter weekend during which there were 10, yes, 10 mass shootings in the United States, 10 different mass shootings in the United States, posted a picture of an armed Easter Bunny of a bunch of armed Easter Bunnies, in fact, and a bunch of people went crazy on Twitter.
And then the next reaction was those who came out and said, there’s a double standard, how can you criticize Don Jr. but not criticize Hunter Biden?
And we’ve got to separate all of these things and disaggregate them because the dialogue and the discourse has become so ignorant and so unproductive.
So let’s take a step back. It’s Easter. And for those who celebrate I am told, although I am not one of them, it is a sacred time, it is a special time, etc.
And some people took offense to the idea of kind of trivializing or defacing the concept of the Easter Bunny, which I don’t know how sacred the bunny is, but okay, with firearms, and that’s really a call for Christians to make. I don’t really care about that aspect of it one way or the other.
The second layer is this issue of the shootings with not only with the backdrop of mass shootings in the United States, but in particular with 10 mass shootings on Easter weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday of Easter weekend.
Is there something insensitive or disrespectful or whatever, to the image of the Easter Bunnies with firearms? Many people say that yes, there absolutely is. I think it’s pretty despicable.
The counterpoint that some are putting out there is no, the mass shootings are a reminder that we need more armed people because more guns mean more safety. That’s a gun argument.
It’s not an argument that is that interesting to me anymore. We know that when there are generally speaking more guns around more people get shot, just the reality. And this good guy with a gun, bad guy with a gun thing? It’s an old, tired debate. But that’s another aspect of it. The gun thing.
The most interesting part to me, is when can you criticize a president’s kid for what they do? How can you say what Hunter Biden does doesn’t matter but what Don Jr. does does matter?
The difference is Don Jr. is posting stuff to his huge social media following. The stuff that’s being discussed about Hunter Biden relates to business dealings from four years ago, which are being investigated by the Justice Department, and the imaginary scandal around Hunter Biden’s laptop.
These are not things that Hunter Biden is doing publicly. And Hunter Biden is nowhere in the public space.
So as I’ve said before, the laptop story is a right wing media driven story. I’ve talked about it as such, it’s not very interesting to me. The Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden should happen, Joe Biden shouldn’t interfere. Joe Biden shouldn’t be telling the Justice Department to investigate anybody. And Joe Biden shouldn’t be telling the Justice Department not to investigate anybody, it should just happen. And if Hunter Biden did something wrong, charge him, I don’t care.
Just do what needs to be done with the awareness that Hunter has nothing to do with his father’s administration and has no public presence.
Don Jr. is choosing to make deliberately controversial posts to social media. So there is no analogy whatsoever to Hunter Biden. And we are criticizing to the extent that we are, quite frankly, I don’t care much what Don says, I think he’s a disgusting, ignorant guy who shouldn’t be in charge of anything, period. And of course, he’s posting disgusting stuff, but to the extent that Don Jr. is being criticized, he’s being criticized for things that he is saying. And images are saying things in a way.
So there’s no analogy here. It’s not, Oh, either. You’re allowed to criticize the children of presidents or you’re not allowed to criticize the children of presidents. It’s all context.
Another example, Jared and Ivanka were part of Trump’s administration. So when we criticize what they do, or what they say, Jared Kushner was supposed to be solving the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Trump told us he would, he didn’t do it. That’s a failure. He was involved in government and that was a failure. So we criticize it.
It’s not the same as the Hunter Biden stuff. It has nothing to do with it.
Trump criticized Hillary for using a private email server. Then Ivanka used one for White House business while Trump was President. That’s substantive.
That’s a double standard that’s related to the role working with Trump. So we talked about that.
It is very different rather than those who want to take down Joe Biden because of things Hunter Biden allegedly did four years ago that have nothing to do with Joe Biden.
So let’s stop with the “double standards”. Criticize people for what they say if they choose to have a public persona, investigate people when they should be investigated. Let the facts take you where they are and stop the double standards, people, please.
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