Why conservatives are so mad about Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

There was an amusing delicacy to the way a Washington Post reporter phrased the paper's confirmation Wednesday of the authenticity of a large number of Hunter Biden's emails. "Thousands of emails purportedly from the laptop computer of Hunter Biden are authentic communications that can be verified through cryptographic signatures from technology companies," tweeted Matt Viser as he promoted a story analyzing the messages.

The Hunter Biden laptop controversy has grown bigger than just a story about emails belonging to the president's son, though. Conservatives see pervasive liberal media bias and the suppression of information that was potentially harmful to a Democratic presidential campaign. Prominent public figures confidently asserted that the computer and its contents were Russian disinformation. "If we are right," wrote more than "50 former senior intelligence officials" in a well-publicized letter, "this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this."

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.