On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip, Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton, CNN Political Commentator Ashley Allison — who was Deputy Director and Senior Policy Adviser for the Obama White House’s Office of Public Engagement — responded to Hunter Biden’s op-ed about his addiction with Phillip and Singleton noting that the crime bill that then-Sen. Joe Biden wrote a disparity involving crack and Phillip noting that “There are probably some black men in prison right now who did not get that same kind of grace, for sure, that Hunter Biden was asking for.”
Singleton said that he has empathy for Hunter’s addiction struggles, “the same compassion and empathy that he’s calling for, Abby, I would have wished and hoped that his father, the chief architect of the ‘9[4] crime bill, would have had that same compassion and empathy for the 1.5 million black men that were imprisoned because of that legislation. I would have wanted the same empathy and compassion and the lack of politicization that black mothers and families and community leaders asked for when those same black men were going before judges who said, you’re absolutely going to prison, I’m not going to have compassion for your addiction. And so, while I understand the point and the politics of it, this, to me, goes a whole lot deeper and falls a bit on deaf ears.”
Phillip then said, “The ‘9[4] crime bill that Shermichael was talking about, he’s not wrong. The crack cocaine disparity was born out of that crime bill, and now compassion for Hunter Biden?”
Allison responded that we have taken a different approach to addiction over the years and “to go after Hunter Biden as a political ploy, I don’t think falls well on voters, because if you have compassion for your family member who is addicted, you would also have compassion for a father who has sympathy for his son who has struggled. To the ’94 crime bill, though, I would say that the Biden administration has done a lot of things to right the wrongs of that bill, de-scheduling marijuana, working to — the First Step Act was passed under Donald Trump, but making sure that this Justice Department actually does decrease the sentencing disparities, commutations, those are things that this administration has done to right some of the wrongs of the ’94 crime bill.”
Singleton responded, “I give significant credit to the president and the Justice Department for doing those things. I just think that Hunter Biden should not be surprised by this, Abby. We’re living, Ashley, in hyperpartisan times, hyper-tribal times. Some people may be of the belief that anything is to go — I don’t necessarily agree with that politically.”
He continued, “But, again, I think, here’s this guy who is the son of the president of the United States of America, I own a lot of firearms. I guarantee you if I, as a black man, somehow made an error or did not put the proper information on that document, I would not have been given a sweetheart deal before the judge came in and said, wait a minute here, this isn’t what would occur for the normal person. I can assure you that, if I didn’t pay my taxes, like Wesley Snipes, then, I too, would probably be in prison for almost three years. And so, look, I don’t like to use the term white privilege all the time, but this is certainly a case of white male privilege, because if this guy wasn’t white and wasn’t named Hunter Biden, I absolutely guarantee the charges against him would be very different. He would be in prison, maybe under the prison.”
Allison responded that Hunter does acknowledge his privilege, and “the lesson to be learned is that if someone is suffering with addiction, they should be supported by their family and they should have the infrastructure around them and the social welfare programs around them to get them the help to recovery. And I think that’s the point of the op-ed.”
Phillip then said, “Well, look, that is, I think, where we are today. There are probably some black men in prison right now who did not get that same kind of grace, for sure, that Hunter Biden was asking for.”
Allison and Singleton agreed and added that the same is true about black women, a point Phillip agreed with as well.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett