Conservative: Will Judge Toss Hunter Plea Deal?
“It’s rare for a judge to rip up a plea arrangement,” notes The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. But Hunter Biden’s, which is “scheduled to be approved Wednesday in Delaware by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika,” has “become an issue.” The question is “whether the two powerful institutions that handled this investigation and came up with this sweetheart deal — the FBI and the Justice Department — can be trusted.” And “Congress has unearthed troubling allegations” against Hunter and his father “that are increasingly specific and backed up by witnesses,” even as “someone isn’t telling the truth” about whether Delaware US Attorney David Weiss actually had the authority to charge the first son. Tearing up the plea deal would be “well within Judge Noreika’s discretion.”
Media watch: Spinning Joe’s Age Woes
Joe Biden’s “reelection campaign is ‘addressing his age’ ” problem — with help from NBC, scoffs Stephen Green at PJMedia. In a recent report, NBC admitted Biden relies on an “extra-large font on his teleprompter and note cards to remind him” of points to make. Yet it “failed to mention that Biden still fumbles his way through his note cards — particularly with Israeli president Isaac Herzog last week — and that his so-called press conferences include scripted questions presented by approved reporters.” “While conceding that Biden is indeed old, the report omits vital facts and ends on an upbeat note.” “NBC can’t hide Biden’s age,” but it “can spin it as nothing more concerning than the occasional flub” on which those “nasty Republicans can pounce.”
Urban beat: The Rise of Low-Level Crime
Criticism of criminal-justice reforms has “largely ignored” the “breakdown in lawful behavior in other less life-threatening areas: car and traffic violations, fare-beaters on public transportation, and car and store thefts,” laments Robert Cherry at National Review. After some traffic stops turned deadly, cities curbed “the ability of police officers to make stops for so-called minor infractions.” And with shoplifting decriminalized, “theft by repeat offenders has become more commonplace.” In some cities, “the spike in carjackings can be traced to criminal-justice reforms,” while in others, young re-offending thieves face “limited consequences because of toothless laws.” The left’s “unwillingness to hold individuals responsible for illegal behaviors” is leaving “store thefts, carjackings, and fare-beating to go unpunished.” “Is this the brave new world that social-justice advocates envisioned?”
Foreign desk: Risky Fallout From Grain Strikes
Russia’s airstrikes targeting Ukrainian grain storage facilities could spark NATO involvement and weaken the Ukrainian economy, warns the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan. Russia’s Sunday-Monday attack hit a Ukrainian grain depot in Reni, a city less than half a mile from NATO member Romania. Despite Russia’s “significant effort to avoid” a NATO confrontation, such a strike could prove risky. As important, Putin has hurt the Ukrainian economy by “destroying 60,000 tons of Ukrainian grain,” spiked “global grain prices” and boosted “Russian agricultural exports as substitutes for those from Ukraine.” All this destroys “any remaining moral pretense that Moscow retains with its foreign partners in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East,” many of whom rely on Ukrainian grain. Putin is “jeopardizing his reputation as a reliable partner.”
Libertarian: Biden’s Anti-Worker Tariffs
Team Biden is considering new tariffs on steel imports that could goose food prices an average 58 cents per can, even as consumers are “already reeling” from inflation, roars Reason’s Eric Boehm. And all to benefit one company, Cleveland Cliffs Inc., which requested the move. Tariffs “not only impose economic costs on consumers,” they threaten jobs: One study estimates 40,000 lost from the move; another sees 600 destroyed for every one saved. “The president’s so-called ‘worker-centric trade policy’ is aimed at protecting union jobs but often ignores the economic consequences that hike prices for those same workers when they clock out. Higher prices at the grocery store won’t make life easier for the blue-collar workers” Biden says he wants to help.
Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
