If you threw a rock at news headlines over the last few months, you'd no doubt hit a news story where journalists or opinion columnists breathlessly decried Donald Trump threatening witnesses, judges, juries, or someone else. All these reports were meant to drive home the same point: Donald Trump was subverting the justice system and trying to bully his way to a court win. If these are rules by which we judge Presidents, it seems like we need to investigate Joe Biden some more.

Earlier in May, Politico published a bizarre piece lamenting the toll Hunter Biden's trials were having on Joe Biden. The headline was, "Biden aides worry about psychological torment as Hunter heads for trial. The President has expressed fear that his son may serve time in prison."

Politico starts with a mushy description of Biden having to watch 12 jurors enter a courtroom to deal with his son, referring to it as "an unprecedented event in American political history that [the White House] hoped never to face."

We then get to the meat of the story. Politico talked to anonymous sources in the White House who said, "Biden has expressed fears to them about the possibility that his son will serve time in prison. 'He worries about Hunter every single day, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep,' said one of the three advisers. 'That will only pick up during a trial.'"

The cases against Hunter Biden are federal and are being pushed by the Department of Justice. That's why it's noteworthy that a week after Politico published its piece, we learned that Joe Biden brought his son, Hunter, to a White House gala with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

That means nothing by itself. There are plenty of Washington D.C. galas, even if it is untoward for the Attorney General to be at an event where his attorneys are actively prosecuting one of the guests just weeks before the trial.

But it doesn't end there. We learned this week that Joe Biden made a "surprise nighttime visit toe Hallie Biden," one of Hunter Biden's exes and a witness at Hunter's upcoming trial. The New York Post noted, "Biden stopped by Hallie's home around 8 p.m. for a brief private talk eight days before the 54-year-old first son's trial is scheduled to stand trial beginning June 3. Hallie dated Hunter at the time of his alleged gun crimes and is one of a dozen expected witnesses."

The Post added, "The White House did not disclose the reason for the president's brief visit around 8 p.m."

At this stage, it feels worth asking the question: What is happening here? If we swapped parties and Donald Trump had taken identical actions, it would be easy to see what would be the lead headline in every major newspaper in America: "Trump Accused Of Witness Intimidation Ahead Of Trial."

We'd get breathless coverage of Trump meeting with a witness and having his son with him during a meeting with the Attorney General. Congress would have hearings on the need to protect the justice system. Instead, we get a "strange quiet" from the press. They're off investigating a years-old story of Justice Samuel Alito's flag situation, a story the Washington Post spiked in 2021 as a non-story.

But it's Joe Biden who has taken these actions and done so with his own staff worried about the impacts of this trial on his cognitive state. Politico can put whatever spin they want on the story of the "psychological torment" the trial brings to Biden. If that's the case, it goes to reason Biden may want to prevent that "torment."

We have reports of him stepping in with two people involved in the case involving his lone, surviving son. Democrats have billed the trials against Trump as a stance for the "rule of law." That's noble in its own right. Do they hold the same beliefs about their own President?

Hunter Biden's excuses for the trial are borderline Trumpian. He blames Fox News, Congressional Republicans, and other conservative outlets for his current situation. It's a political witch hunt in Hunter Bidenland. Does Joe Biden believe the same thing since he's enduring "psychological torment?"

It's hard to say. It's certainly not clear the President is keeping his hands off a trial involving his only remaining son. By the standards the press is holding Trump, the assumption is that something untoward is happening. That should be the lead story right now, given that we're in the middle of a tight election, Biden is losing in the polls, and suffering from worry over his son's trial. 

Hold the Biden's to the same standard Trump gets. If Democrats want to stand for the rule of law, let's go the whole way.