Judge Joe Biden by his policies, not by his troubled son’s emails
By now, you have probably heard the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop: it contains emails that Hunter Biden sold access to his father and that Joe Biden received kickbacks from these deals. Conservative media outlets claim to have verified that Hunter was in fact the source of these emails and that these emails constitute conclusive proof that Joe Biden is a corrupt politician.
What these media outlets are less likely to report is that Hunter Biden has struggled with drug addiction for years and was probably using heavily during the period these emails were written.
People in Narcotics Anonymous have a saying:” How do you know when an addict is lying? His lips are moving.” Unfortunately, addicts not in recovery lie. A lot. Therefore, it is irresponsible for conservative media outlets assume that Hunter Biden’s emails constitute irrefutable proof that Joe Biden is guilty of influence peddling.
To anyone familiar with addicts and addiction, it is entirely believable that a man always in need of money for cocaine would imply, wrongly, to his Ukrainian and Chinese clients that his access to his father would benefit them. It is also conceivable that an addict would email his children and claim that half of his profits from such deals went to his father — after all, it would explain why a man earning a good salary seemed to always need money and to have so little for his young adult children.
Is this what happened? I don’t know and right now, with the evidence available, neither does anyone else. Therefore, we owe it to Joe Biden and to the entire country to give him the benefit of the doubt and to judge him on his policies and not on emails written by a deeply troubled man.
In my judgment, the public should also judge Hunter Biden with compassion. Most people know that when he was a toddler, he was in a car crash that took the lives of his mother and sister. Less well known is that Hunter sustained a skull fracture. There is a growing body of research indicating that head injuries often result in brain damage that may leave overall intelligence intact while impairing judgment. Depression and substance abuse are often sequelae of such injuries. Hunter Biden may have used drugs in a futile attempt to offset the damage inflicted by his injury.
Does anyone know with certainty that Hunter Biden sustained such damage? No. But there is enough research to suggest that such an injury is a strong possibility and that such injuries often lead to the types of behavior he has engaged in.
Head injuries, depression, and addiction do not excuse illegal behavior, but these problems can lead us to judge the alleged acts harshly while judging the persons committing them with compassion.
Our country stands at a crossroads. The winning candidate will take the country in a far different direction than the losing candidate would have done had he been elected. In this time of political violence, COVID, and a struggling economy, we owe it to ourselves as Americans to evaluate Joe Biden on his policies — and not on the words of his struggling son.
