Last night I wrote this bit of tough love for those of us who are perhaps understanding that Joe Biden definitely positively will be the Democratic nominee in 2024 and yet still want to agonize over his age and perseverate over the potential electoral consequences. Now I’d like to shift gear and discuss why it is exactly that there has been such a freak out about this now. After all Biden has been as old as he is … well, forever. Literally, forever. Think about it. Not long ago social media was filled with Dark Brandon memes. His campaign was actually making big money selling Dark Brandon merch. So what happened exactly? Why now rather than in the Spring or last winter?

I was sitting here tonight thinking about things. And it occurs to me that I’ve written the ‘Biden ain’t stepping aside so just suck it up and move on’ post a few times. But I left something out.

You getting all angsty about Biden’s age and worrying about it and coming back to it – you’re the problem. You need to grow up. I mean this not in an intemperate or judgmental spirit but in one of kindness and compassion. But seriously, you need to grow up.

I want to follow up on David’s post below about Hunter Biden being hit with federal gun charges. Tax charges are presumably coming in another jurisdiction. But the gun charges are frankly weird. As David notes, it is very uncommon, perhaps as much as unheard of, for someone to be charged with lying about substance abuse when buying a gun unless it’s part of prosecution for some other felony. So maybe you buy a gun, use it to commit a felony and then prosecutors charge you for that felony and also hit you for lying about your drug use when you bought the gun. I haven’t spoken to anyone who can think of another example. Former DOJ Inspector General Michael Bromwich said simply today, “It doesn’t happen. DOJ will need to produce data in discovery, which will show this is the most selective of prosecutions.”

Hunter Biden has been indicted today in Delaware on federal gun charges that mirror the ones he previously had entered into a plea agreement to resolve. That plea agreement, as you know, fell apart in a dramatic way in open court.

Biden, through his legal team, continues to maintain that at least as to that part of the plea deal that addressed the gun charges, he had entered into a binding non-prosecution (or diversion) agreement and he’s going to hold the government to it.

I had half-expected Special Counsel David Weiss to sidestep that issue and charge the tax case instead. That was not to be. (Weiss doesn’t have jurisdiction in Delaware for the tax charges, so I would still anticipate those being filed in DC or California.)