David Lazarus tells you in his profile that he is an ‘Emmy-winning money guy for KTLA Channel 5’ and that he used to write for the LA Times. So, he should be a good reporter, which most people define (in part) as keeping their biases in check, right? Right?
And you can tell he got extra-finger-waggy when he wrote this tweet:
Attacking a man's family is the strategy of scoundrels https://t.co/EkD05cKly2
— David Lazarus (@Davidlaz) July 23, 2023
And it took only one tweet for Jim Treacher to basically level Lazarus, really nothing more than linking to one of Lazarus’ own tweets:
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) July 23, 2023
Yeah, we are pretty sure Lazarus ain’t coming back from that. (Rimshot—did you see what we did there?)
You must have been chuckling as you input your search terms. You just know it's there!
— Dennis the OG Spongeworthy (@spongeworthy2) July 23, 2023
To be fair, maybe Lazarus thinks he is a scoundrel? Or does that make it better? Look, we are trying to help Mr. Lazarus on this!
Jokes aside, let’s start with something basic. As a rule, you don’t attack a politician’s family—and by saying family, we include spouses—unless they make themselves fair game. Mind you, we aren’t saying it is illegal to do this, just wrong. The classic example of a spouse making him or herself fair game is Hillary Clinton. Back when Bill Clinton was first running for President, both Clintons made sure to say repeatedly that she would be co-president:
Bill and Hillary — two leaders for the price of one? https://t.co/v5VO38HOl3 pic.twitter.com/K4zDzJx4kO
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) July 27, 2016
Once she did that, she was fair game for criticism.
By comparison, most first ladies generally stay out of politics. They might take up a mild public interest campaign, like Nancy Reagan asking people to voluntarily quit drugs or Michelle Obama asking kids to eat better and exercise more. You might even reasonably suspect that those public interest campaigns were linked to the policy preferences of their Presidential spouses—Ronald Reagan cracked down on drugs, while Nancy asked you nicely to stop, for instance—but generally speaking, as long as the spouse stays out of politics, he or she is off limits.
If you read the NBC article (which we previously reported on here) that prompted Lazarus' Tweet, you see them complaining about two things. First, that those evil conservatives are attacking Joe Biden because he won’t acknowledge his granddaughter. Second, conservatives are pointing out what a complete train wreck Hunter Biden is.
Now, first, pointing out that Joe Biden doesn’t acknowledge one of his grandchildren that is not attacking Joe Biden’s family. It is attacking Joe Biden for how he very publicly treats his family. You don’t have to say anything bad about the little girl and we never would. She’s frankly the innocent victim in all of this.
Second, the NBC article eventually admits it is not just conservatives pointing out how vile Biden’s behavior is in refusing to acknowledge his granddaughter. As we previously reported, even the NY Times’ Maureen Dowd hit him for it. And NBC was overjoyed to point at an Ann Coulter column defending Biden’s cruelty toward this little girl:
Hunter's 'Love Child' and Conservative Madness https://t.co/JD6vDDTY4g
— George Kovacs (@gfkovacs50) July 13, 2023
(We’ll probably come back to that in another post, because Good Lord.)
As for the Hunter Biden thing, he has made himself fair game in numerous ways. For instance, there is no longer any doubt that he committed federal crimes—he is getting ready to plead guilty to them—and so it is reasonable to ask whether an administration that is literally run by his father treated him just like any other citizen. Or did Daddy instruct his underlings to go easy on his son? There are also suggestions that foreign corporations were funneling money to Joe Biden with Hunter Biden as a conduit.
Indeed, the crime of bribery doesn’t even require payment to the person holding office at all. Go read 18 U.S.C. 201, the federal bribery statute, and you will see that it also covers giving things of value to ‘any other person’ which can obviously include one’s own son. That only makes sense, especially in the case of helping out their children. Many parents love their children to the point that they care about their children’s happiness more than their own. So in a twisted way, it wouldn't be surprising if some corrupt politicians funnel more money to their children than themselves.
Thus if Joe Biden said, ‘give my son a job and I will help you out as president’ that is bribery—even if Joe Biden is not getting anything out of it. So, you don’t have to believe that Joe Biden was getting a kickback on that bribe—the only question is if Joe Biden was offering to do any official act in exchange for it. And Hunter Biden accepted a job under circumstances that makes reasonable people suspect that’s exactly what happened—again, making himself fair game for political attacks.
And do we have to mention that bribery is specifically listed as a grounds for impeachment?
And then there is the strange handling of Hunter Biden’s gun charges where allegedly the Secret Service got involved:
Sources: Secret Service inserted itself into case of Hunter Biden’s gun https://t.co/7B9pNim2zl
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) March 25, 2021
The extra strange detail is at that point in time Joe Biden wasn’t officially under the protection of the Secret Service. So why was the Secret Service getting involved at all? That’s another reason why Hunter Biden’s behavior has become a proper topic of discussion in politics.
Heck, Hunter Biden even sent a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump over a week ago, as we reported. The letter focused on Trump’s suggestion that cocaine found in the White House belonged to Hunter Biden. Who left cocaine at the White House is an entirely reasonable line of public inquiry, not the least because finding an unidentified white powder in the White House caused the building to be briefly evacuated, disrupting government business. And while we aren’t ready to conclude it was definitely Hunter Biden’s cocaine, let’s not forget that this is the son of the likely Democratic presidential candidate trying to tell the leading candidate for the Republican nomination what he can and can’t say about an issue of public importance. If Hunter Biden wasn’t fair game before, he sure is now.
In any case, while Treacher did the best dragging, naturally others dragged Lazarus, too.
I’m going to attack that coke-snorting, stripper-banging corrupt piece of crap and I don’t care if you like it or not https://t.co/AoxGA1tvm9
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) July 24, 2023
https://t.co/3ynTsHWhXX pic.twitter.com/6gpHqCcsq8
— Magills (@magills_) July 23, 2023
Minor children, elderly relatives, & those without a stake in the game? Sure. Grown ass adults publicly engaged & invested in profiting off the name & political capital of the family? Nah. https://t.co/9jFclVu0rd
— J.R. Holmsted (@JHolmsted) July 24, 2023
Discussing the crimes of a crime family is the impropriety, not the crimes
— Stockton Crushed (@SimonTemplarPV) July 24, 2023
These attacks on Joe's poor child are reprehensible. Joe is a wonderful father and 6/7th a wonderful grandfather.
— ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕗𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕣 𝔻𝕒𝕩𝕠𝕡𝕙𝕠𝕟𝕖 (@DaxophoneSolo) July 23, 2023
We’re taking that last Tweet as sarcasm.
This is the definition of gaslighting.
— Keri (@kbatt7121116) July 23, 2023
I don’t care if Hunter snorts cocaine. What I do care about are his business dealings, using his dad’s VP office, and whether or not Joe Biden was also making money off of it. https://t.co/xC5iOtDV0C
We’d respectfully disagree, especially after cocaine disrupted White House operations.
Enemy of the people https://t.co/OHZtMXcQFl
— SoothingDave (@SoothingDave) July 24, 2023
The man and his family are scoundrels and covering for them makes you just as bad.
— Tom in FL (@thomasa56) July 24, 2023
Finally:
Perspective: you did not realize your tweets are searchable https://t.co/lg2MPagUjZ
— Hooch (@CompanyHooch) July 24, 2023
We are glad we were not drinking any liquids when we read that one.
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