Democracy Dies in Darkness

The right’s current thing: claiming Trump probes are a distraction

Analysis by
National columnist
July 28, 2023 at 2:51 p.m. EDT
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is seen on the screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill. Hawley argued on Laura Ingraham's Fox News program that the expanded indictment of former president Donald Trump was contrived to distract from Hunter Biden's legal problems. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
6 min

Soon after the office of special counsel Jack Smith revealed its expanded indictment of former president Donald Trump on Thursday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News program.

“Senator, it seems like, again, the two-tiered system of justice,” Ingraham said after introducing her guest. “Hunter” — referring, as anyone who’s seen Fox News in the past two years is aware, to President Biden’s son — “gets an agreement that would give him all this broad immunity. And meanwhile they just keep piling on Trump from every corner.”