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’s looking increasingly likely that he can’t do both.

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

And there may be even more shoes ready to drop now that Hunter’s shady sweetheart plea with his dad’s Justice Department has collapsed.

He may face also charges for tax evasion and illegally lobbying the US government on behalf of foreign interests.

This must feel like a living nightmare in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

As Hunter inches closer to trial and the distinct possibility that he may be convicted and sentenced to serious time behind bars, there are reports that President Biden has voiced fears that he, ‘might be dead before his son’s case would be resolved.’ 

And a former aide to Jill Biden even compared the ‘weight’ of Hunter’s legal woes to the ’emotionally taxing’ loss of Joe’s son Beau over which the President ‘probably cries every day.’

But there’s something the President can do – he can pardon Hunter.

He can even do it preemptively and put an immediate stop to any criminal proceedings. 

Joe Biden doesn’t need to wait for the completion of a painful trial to officially forgive Hunter for his alleged crimes. 

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

President Joe Biden faces an incredibly difficult choice: save Hunter or his 2024 White House hopes. It’s looking increasingly likely that he can’t do both.

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

President Bill Clinton infamously 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 wiped his record clean.

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

So that’s your choice Joe.

You can pardon Hunter, exit stage left and kiss your 2024 dreams goodbye. Or, you can leave Hunter swinging in the wind.

As far as Congressional Democrats are concerned, they’ve made their decision. They’re ready to throw Hunter under the bus to save his dad and their own political futures.

‘Hunter Biden may have very well done some improper things. He’s a disturbed man,’ said Congressman Jerry Nadler, the Democratic top member on 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,’ argued Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, who sits on a committee investigating GOP claims of government bias.

President Bill Clinton infamously 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 wiped his record clean.

Frankly, can you blame them? Hunter legal troubles have become a full-blown scandal for the president.

A new CNN poll showed a solid majority – 61 percent of Americans – believe Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings. Another 55 percent think the President interfered in some way in the investigation into Hunter. 

And now with the Republican impeachment inquiry and a potential trial on the horizon only more details will leak out into the public consciousness.

But then again, these Democrats are directly contradicting the President.

Joe Biden recently said: ‘My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him, and [the investigation] impacts my Presidency by making me feel proud of him.’

This is an incredible moment. And it’s important for Americans to take a step back and realize how long the mainstream media and the Democrats have been gaslighting them.

For remember how this all started. Fifty-one former intelligence community honchos warned the nation that Hunter’s laptop was a Russian disinformation plot. Joe repeated false claim on a presidential debate stage.

Demands that Hunter be held accountable for not paying taxes, for his illegal gun, for all the crack and hookers and even for refusing to acknowledge his own daughter who he fathered with an ex-DC stripper were Republican talking points that unfairly targeted a recovering addict. 

Joe Biden recently said: ‘My son has done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him, and [the investigation] impacts my Presidency by making me feel proud of him.’

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

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

So we’re a long way away from this being a GOP hit job.

It also wasn’t long ago that criticism of Biden’s age was written off as a vile smear – ageism. 

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

With these poll numbers, Joe’s party is put in a difficult position. 

Democrats are well aware that only Joe Biden has proven he can beat Donald Trump. Letting him walk away means risking Trump’s return. That terrifies them.

But the President’s position is damn near impossible.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre has repeatedly ruled out the possibility that the President would pardon his son. ‘I’ve answered this question before,’ she said last week. ‘I was very clear, and I said no.’

It’s hard to see how Joe could go back on that now. And a president who pardons his son can’t make the argument that he represents normalcy against the chaotic lawlessness of Trump. 

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

But if Joe decides not to drop out the price of doing so may be that his only surviving son has to live with the consequences of his actions.

Hunter may have to go to jail.