The political world has been roiled by the (not at all surprising) news of President Joe Biden’s grant of a pardon to his controversial son, Hunter. Holiday weekend notwithstanding, the Regime Media are hard at work furiously spinning the pardon.

Watch as former Republican Congressman (IL) and MSNBC Never Trumper regular Joe Walsh react to the pardon in real time, seemingly shocked at discovering that perhaps Joe Biden isn’t the paragon of virtue he billed himself out to be- and with a tone reserved for the child who first discovers the truth about Santa Claus: 

Joe Walsh decrying the Hunter Biden pardon on MSNBC and being met with "a father's love" is PURE CINEMA pic.twitter.com/AkZwWZ6PVC

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) December 2, 2024

MSNBC AYMAN

12/1/24

8:37 PM

MELISSA MURRAY: Joining us now to talk about the rhetoric on Capitol Hill with regard to Hunter Biden is Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh. Welcome. Congressman Walsh, what do you make of this? What is likely to be the response on Capitol Hill to this breaking news?

JOE WALSH: Good to be with you. See? I told you so. They're all like that. So the next time any of us complain about anything Trump does, this -- this pardon is just deflating. For those of us who have been out there for a few years now yelling about what a unique threat Donald Trump is, for Joe Biden to do something like this, Trump -- “nobody's above the law,” we've been screaming. Well Joe Biden just made clear his son Hunter is above the law. “Donald Trump lies every time he opens his mouth,” we've been screaming. Joe Biden repeatedly lied about this. “The politicization of the justice system,” Donald Trump and his people have been screaming. That's exactly what Biden said here.

MURRAY: Joe, is this a politics of purity? I mean, we had Donald Trump pardon sheriff Joe Arpaio during his term and there was not a lot of a cry about that and this was a father who saw his first wife killed, his daughter killed in a car crash- his two young sons survive, one goes on to have real difficulties with addiction, another dies because of cancer. This is a family that’s really troubling me- yes, he said he wasn’t going to do this but did anyone believe that that was the case? I mean, I would have put good money on this happening. Are many people going to be surprised that a father who is also the president would do this for his son?

WALSH: I don't know that people will be surprised. Because you're right. Joe Biden repeatedly said he wouldn't do this. So he repeatedly lied. But this just furthers the cynicism that people have about politics, and that cynicism strengthens Trump because Trump can just say “I'm not a unique threat. Everybody does this. If I do something for my kid, my son-in-law, whatever- look. Joe Biden does the same thing.” I get it, but this was a selfish move by Biden, which politically only strengthens Trump. It's just deflating.

MURRAY: All right. Joe Walsh, a big hot take, and we’re going to stay with this-

WALSH: Thank you.

MURRAY: You at home, stay with us. We have much more on this breaking news right after this. 

What makes this segment so cinematic is its juxtaposition of Walsh’s shattered beliefs with substitute host Melissa Murray’s rank cynicism. After all but calling Walsh a fool for taking Biden at his word, Murray dumped on Walsh’s reaction, calling it “a big hot take”. “Steaming” was inferred but not uttered. So long as we’re being honest: no one is shocked that Biden pulled the trigger on the Hunter pardon. The only thing surprising here is the timing of the pardon, which one expected to land on January 19th.

Here are a couple of things to watch for, as this story continues to develop: 

One quickly congealing narrative is the “what about” narrative: that Biden’s pardon of Hunter should not be viewed as scandalous because of some of the pardons issued by President Elect Donald Trump during his first term. But the record reflects that Biden allegedly ran in order to rebuild the norms once shattered by Trump. Pardoning the crack-addled failson, after pointedly saying you wouldn’t, flies in the face of all that.

The other key narrative is Biden therefore HAD to pardon Hunter because of the coming political landscape. Expect Biden to be recast NOT as a corrupt liar who twisted government to his family’s benefit, but as a loving father who saw Kash Patel coming down the pike. He had no choice, you see.

Exit question: if the Hunter pardon is dropping now, what’s coming down the pike?