Speaker 1: Welcome back to the David Packman Show. I'm producer Pat Forde, filling in for
David today while he's away. Some pretty big news broke yesterday, which is that Hunter Biden,
the son of President Joe Biden, has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to
plead guilty to two minor tax charges and to admit to the facts of a gun charge. The plea
deal will likely keep Hunter Biden out of jail and it subject to approval by a federal judge,
which is likely going to happen. The proposed deal includes pleading guilty to two misdemeanor
tax charges for failure to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018, with a combined liability of approximately
$1.2 million. Prosecutors are going to recommend probation for the tax charges, and then the gun
charge is going to be handled as a diversion case where Hunter will be able to technically not have
to plead guilty to the crime and he'll be able to do so if he successfully meets the measures
outlined in the diversion program. The gun charge will ultimately likely be removed from his record.
So Hunter Biden's gun charge stems from a false statement that he made on paperwork while he was
purchasing a gun. He denied drug use or having a drug problem when in fact that wasn't true. Lying
on gun purchase forms is only a small percentage of firearm related prosecutions, and typically
it's tacked on as a secondary offense. And that seems to be what happened here. Hunter Biden's
lawyer stated that he takes responsibility for the tax mistakes made during a period of turmoil
and addiction in his life. The full statement from his lawyer, Chris Clark, was, quote, Hunter will
take responsibility for two instances of failure to file tax payments. When do a firearm charge,
which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea
agreement will also be filed by the government. I know Hunter believes it is important to take
responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life.
He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward. The White House, for its part,
has expressed support for Hunter Biden, stating that the president and the first lady love their
son and support his efforts to rebuild his life. So I hear all this information and I think that.
All right, it looks like justice has been served. Hunter Biden clearly did some stuff wrong and he
appears to have committed some crimes here. He didn't pay taxes that he owed to the federal
government. That effectively is stealing from the rest of us. And so he should have to pay his
fair share just like anybody else. He did lie while going through the process of obtaining a
weapon. And you can't say that you're not using drugs when going through that process when you
actually are at the time. You may disagree about whether that should be illegal or not,
but the law says that it is currently and so, sure, he should be held accountable for it.
And I think that the correct agreement was ultimately reached here. He takes the plea deal,
he gets a slap on the wrist with the probation. He doesn't have to go to jail or anything like
that. It doesn't seem to me like these amount to jail worthy crimes. Anyway, we can end it now,
Right? This is really not all that hard. And I don't look at this case and think,
Oh, I have to defend Hunter Biden at all costs. I really don't care about Hunter Biden. Right. I
apply the same standard when it comes to anyone facing criminal charges. Right. Whether it's
Trump, whether it's Biden, Hillary, whoever. If there's something to investigate, you should
investigate. If there's something to charge, then you should charge. If it can be proven in court,
then go ahead and prove it. And ultimately, if a sentence is warranted, whether that be sending
someone to prison or otherwise, then sentence them appropriately. But with the MAGA folks, they
pretend as though Hunter Biden this whole time has been like Al Capone or Charles Manson, when in
reality these are pretty minor charges and at the same time they defend Donald Trump no matter what.
When he's accused of keeping the nation's top secrets in his bathroom at Mar a Lago
that anyone can just stumble upon if they knew their way around the resort. And he, of course,
refused to give the documents back after months and months of the National Archives asking.
And that's just one of the multiple criminal investigations and now criminal prosecutions
that Donald Trump is dealing with. Also relevant to this is the fact that Donald Trump was actually
president and wants to be president again. Whereas Hunter Biden, I hate to break it to you,
but he's actually not the president. He just so happens to be related to the current president. He
is the son of the president. But that doesn't mean that he is the president. He doesn't even work in
his father's administration. We've, of course, discussed this ad nauseum. But I suppose the
question now is, how is the Republican Party going to react to the news of Hunter Biden taking this
plea deal? Because they can do a couple of things right? They can either act triumphant and say,
look, he's technically pleaded guilty. So it proves that the Biden crime family narrative
we've been pushing this entire time is true. It shows how Joe Biden, by extension, is unfit to be
president or something like that. On the other hand, they could take the approach of saying,
look how the prosecutors in this case treated Hunter Biden with kid gloves and they let him
go free. Not sending him to jail, even though this is a very standard plea deal. And Trump
has had plenty of opportunities to cooperate with investigators and it will probably be offered plea
deals as well. I just don't think he's going to take them. So in reality, the right wing media is
probably going to do a mix of both when talking about this Hunter story, depending on whatever
serves them best at the time. But I do believe ultimately this is the best outcome for this case.