MEGHAN MCCAIN: Throw your reprobate, gun-slinging son under the bus, Mr. President – or kiss goodbye to the White House

President Joe Biden faces an incredibly difficult choice: save Hunter or his 2024 White House hopes.

It seems increasingly likely that he won’t be able to do both.

Hunter’s lawyers announced Tuesday that the president’s only surviving son will plead not guilty to federal gun charges after being indicted for lying about his drug use to buy a gun.

And there may be even more shoes ready to drop now that Hunter’s shady plea to his father’s Justice Department has failed.

He could also face charges of tax evasion and illegal lobbying of the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests.

It must seem like a living nightmare at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

As Hunter moves closer to trial and the distinct possibility that he could be convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, some reports indicate that President Biden has expressed fears that he “will be dead before the case of his son is resolved.”

And a former Jill Biden aide even compared the “weight” of Hunter’s legal woes to the “emotionally trying” loss of Joe’s son Beau, which the president “probably cries about every day.”

But there is something the president can do: he can pardon Hunter.

He can even do it preventively and put an immediate end to any criminal proceedings.

Joe Biden doesn’t need to wait for a painful trial to end to officially pardon Hunter for his alleged crimes.

And he wouldn’t be the first president to help a family member stuck in the justice system.

Hunter’s lawyers announced that the president’s only surviving son will plead not guilty to federal gun charges after being indicted for lying about his drug use to buy a gun.

President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton, who was arrested in the mid-1980s for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. Roger spent a year in prison. The 2001 presidential pardon erased his record.

But in a testament to the delicate politics of presidential pardons, Clinton waited until the day he left office to make the announcement. It’s hard to convince the American people that the president is right to give his family special treatment.

So it’s your choice Joe.

You can forgive Hunter, exit stage left, and say goodbye to your 2024 dreams. Or, you can let Hunter swing in the wind.

As far as congressional Democrats are concerned, they have made up their minds. They’re willing to throw Hunter under the bus to save his father and their own political future.

“Hunter Biden may very well have done inappropriate things. He’s a troubled man,” said Congressman Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee.

“Our job, or my job, will be to remind the American people of that over and over again – that Hunter Biden is not the administration,” said Rep. Stacey Plaskett, who serves on a committee investigating allegations of bias in the GOP government.

President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton (above), who was arrested in the mid-1980s for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. Roger spent a year in prison. The 2001 presidential pardon erased his record.

Honestly, can you blame them? Hunter’s legal troubles have become a scandal for the president.

A new CNN poll showed that a solid majority — 61% of Americans — believe Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings. 55% believe the president intervened in some way in the Hunter investigation.

And now, with the Republican impeachment inquiry and a possible trial on the horizon, only more details will be released into the public consciousness.

But again, these Democrats are directly contradicting the president.

Joe Biden recently said: “My son did nothing wrong. I trust him. I trust him and (the investigation) impacts my presidency by making me proud of him.

It’s an incredible moment. And it’s important for Americans to step back and realize how long the mainstream media and Democrats have been hyping them up.

Because remember how it all started. Fifty-one former intelligence community luminaries warned the nation that Hunter’s laptop was a Russian disinformation plot. Joe repeated false statements during a presidential debate.

Demanding that Hunter be held accountable for not paying taxes, his illegal gun, all the crack and whores and even refusing to acknowledge his own daughter he fathered with a former DC stripper were Republican talking points that unfairly targeted a recovering drug addict. .

Joe Biden recently said: “My son did nothing wrong. I trust him. I trust him and (the investigation) impacts my presidency by making me proud of him.

A new CNN poll showed that a solid majority — 61% of Americans — believe Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings.

Now we know the laptop is real. Its contents, along with other evidence collected from bank accounts and business records, convinced the American people that what Hunter did was wrong and – most Americans believe – that Joe knew about it.

So we are far from being a Republican Party success.

It was also not long ago that criticism of Biden’s age was considered a vile smear – ageism.

Today, even 69% of Democrats tell pollsters that Biden is too old to serve another four years as president.

With these numbers, Joe’s party finds itself in a difficult position.

Democrats know well that only Joe Biden has proven he can beat Donald Trump. Letting him go means risking Trump’s return. This terrifies them.

But the president’s position is almost impossible.

White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of the president pardoning his son. “I already answered that question,” she said last week. “I was very clear and said no.”

It’s hard to see how Joe could go back on that now. And a president who pardons his son cannot claim that he represents normalcy in the face of Trump’s chaotic anarchy.

The hypocrisy would be too blatant for even the media to ignore.

But if Joe decides not to give up, the price of doing so may be that his only surviving son will have to live with the consequences of his actions.

Hunter may have to go to jail.