On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that the testimony of the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT supported Republican assertions “that progressive elites have gone a little bonkers,” and the Hunter Biden indictment backed up arguments “that Washington is filled with people selling influence, making zillions of dollars, and who are fundamentally corrupt, and like wandering around like mini Jeffrey Epsteins.”
Brooks said, “Politics is now a game of narratives. And the Republicans got two of their narratives totally supported this week. The first is that progressive elites have gone a little bonkers, and the testimony of those three university presidents underlined that story. And then the Hunter Biden story, I agree, there’s nothing so far connecting him to Biden. But one of those stories Republicans tell is that Washington is filled with people selling influence, making zillions of dollars, and who are fundamentally corrupt, and like wandering around like mini Jeffrey Epsteins. And that Hunter Biden story looks bad from that context. He made money because his name is Biden. And then he lived a lifestyle that is offensive, let’s put it that way. We were talking earlier, like, somehow he withdrew $1.6 million from ATMs, according to the indictment. How do you do that? But, basically, it underlines the story that Washington is fundamentally corrupt. And that’s a story Republicans like to tell.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
