Trump and Hunter Biden are train wrecks. Republicans, Democrats owe voters more - Kelly

As we prepare for Labor Day, it’s time to ask leaders of our Republican and Democratic parties to do some work.

It’s been a disturbing summer. But party leaders seem to have taken a vacation from their responsibilities.

Let’s start with the unfolding, stupefying and disgraceful legal drama involving Donald Trump. So far, Trump is facing four criminal trials, with more than 90 allegations. He's also scheduled for additional court action in the civil case involving his sexual abuse and alleged defamation of a female journalist.

But Trump is not the only legal circus that has handcuffed America's politics. Let's not overlook the growing mystery about the alleged crimes of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

So far, Hunter Biden has been formally accused of tax evasion and illegal gun possession — charges for which he planned to offer guilty pleas until his deal with a federal prosecutor fell apart under some hard questions by a judge. Beyond those allegations, however, there is Hunter Biden’s equally stupefying history of questionable financial deals and whether his father knew about these possible shenanigans and looked the other way.

In short, who could imagine such a series of political train wrecks that touch the highest levels of both political parties?

Complicating the matter even more, who could imagine that all of these calamities would converge in a year when Trump is pushing his self-proclaimed “retribution” campaign to unseat Biden from the presidency while facing at least four possible criminal trials and a civil lawsuit? All this, with Trump still falsely claiming that Biden and the Democrats “stole” the 2020 election from him — and with most Republicans agreeing with him.

Are we hearing the warning signals?

Taken together, this combination of incredible events should be a warning signal for the nation. Simply put, how can America conduct a presidential campaign while one of the contenders is sitting in a courtroom facing charges that he tried to interfere with the previous presidential election that placed his incumbent rival in office?

And that’s just Trump. With Biden, congressional Republicans are threatening to launch an impeachment inquiry to resolve the unanswered concerns about the president’s possible links to his son. How can a president under impeachment run for reelection?

If this were a political novel, readers would rightly suggest that the plot was too surreal to be believable. But this surreal narrative is now the new reality in America.

Strangely, the sound you hear from Republican and Democratic leaders is silence. No questions. No alternative points of view. No debates. Not even a peep of worry about how the nation’s democratic principles and long-admired, hard-won history of free elections can withstand such pressures.  It’s as if America’s leaders have embraced the see-no-evil, speak-no-evil, hear-no-evil approach to civic life.

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The primary exception, of course, is Trump — whose penchant for lies, exaggerations and rhetorical teasing has evolved into an effective fundraising strategy. The man who sold steaks, phony college degrees and casino gambling in Atlantic City has now brought his hucksterism to our nation’s most hallowed traditions.

As if that’s not enough, Trump’s campaign fundraising schemes, which include selling T-shirts emblazoned with his glowering and seemingly posed and practiced mug shot from a Georgia jail, are also reportedly being investigated as possible fraud.

So in this symbolic final week of summer, as the nation settles in for another Labor Day, let’s consider the work that leaders of both Democratic and Republican leaders need to take on.

Democrats have to acknowledge the Hunter Biden scandal

Let’s begin with the Democrats.

First, Democrats, you have to deal with the Hunter Biden fiasco.

Yes, Hunter Biden is a troubled soul. His cocaine addiction is well known. Countless families have sons and daughters like him — well-educated, smart, articulate but handcuffed by substance abuse. The stories of hardship are heartbreaking.

But simply brushing off Hunter Biden’s irresponsible behavior and bad decisions as the result of his drug usage misses a key point — and an important question: Did Hunter use his father’s reputation and connections to pull off his business deals and fill his personal bank account to the tune of millions of dollars? Was his father aware of this possible problem?

Democrats are definitely talking about the so-called “Hunter issue” — and the nagging questions about what his father knew or conveniently ignored. But those discussions are mostly held behind the scenes. No significant Democratic leader has stepped forward and raised these issues in a public forum. Not one.

Of course, if Hunter Biden were a Republican, Democrats would be lining up to voice their concerns.

After plea deal's collapse: Hunter Biden's attorneys accuse prosecutors of reneging on immunity

Republicans have to face the turning wheels of justice surrounding Trump

Which brings us to the Republicans.

When it comes to questions about Trump, far too many GOP leaders blurt a canned response that essentially comes down to this: What about the Bidens?

Such an attempt to dodge the issue at hand is hardly a new political tactic that was invented for this moment in time. Plenty of political figures have resorted to the what-about-the-other-guy response as a way of simply avoiding the obvious.

But, amid this swamp of moral equivalency, consider what America is facing next year.

There is, of course, the presidential election. But this one will be like few others. Rarely has a candidate of any party captured a party’s nomination for three consecutive presidential elections. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the exception — but with a key difference from Trump. FDR ran as the incumbent. As if that’s not enough, Trump will likely find himself sitting in a courtroom for much of the campaign season.

He will, of course, complain and invoke all manner of conspiracy theories in an effort to claim that he is being singled out for some form of injustice.

What Trump misses — or conveniently ignores — is a simple fact of legal life. If you are suspected of a crime, the authorities first collect evidence. If the allegations are serious, prosecutors present them to a grand jury of ordinary people. If the grand jury votes to indict, judges are required to schedule a trial — unless, of course, the charges are dismissed or ruled to be otherwise improper.

This is what is known as the wheels of justice. They turn slowly. But when they start to turn, they are difficult to stop, especially when four separate grand juries have concluded that Trump should be charged with a variety of crimes, along with a gaggle of his associates.

Republicans know this. They privately admit it to me all the time in interviews. But few Republican leaders have stepped forward. The most notable exception is former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the daughter of a vice president. She was mercilessly drummed out of office by voters for her courageous decision to raise questions about Trump. But she's a lonely exception now. Even Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted to impeach Trump for his alleged links to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, seems to have lost his voice.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has emerged as another exception, as he runs for the GOP presidential nomination along with another maverick, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. But neither Christie nor Hutchinson is regarded as a top contender. And when asked at the Aug. 23 debate of Republican presidential candidates, even former Vice President Mike Pence said he would not let a criminal conviction of Trump stand in the way of his supporting his former boss in the presidential election.

In other words, Pence, who claims to honor the U.S. Constitution above Trump, said he would nonetheless vote for Trump if the former president had been convicted and was facing prison. Incidentally, Pence was joined in this pledge by five other GOP candidates.

This is just one of the ridiculous scenarios facing America now. Jokes about it now abound, from social media platforms to late-night TV talk shows.

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What about the pressing issues worrying voters? Migrants? Climate?

But consider the issues that have been ignored during this cacophony of nonsense.

Migrants and the border: Let’s start with immigration. The southern border is a bureaucratic and political mess.  The two parties agree on that. But solving this problem is another story, with the parties pointing fingers of blame at each other.

Meanwhile, just since the spring of 2022, more than 100,000 migrants who crossed the border and are seeking political asylum have crowded into New York City. Nearly 3,000 arrived in just one week in August. New York City is a generous place. But it has been overwhelmed.

In general, America does not have the means to handle this kind of random influx of migrants. Immigration courts are so backed up that merely asking for asylum, no matter how phony the request, is an easy ticket into American life.

It's called gaming the system. Additional worries about this lack of orderly immigration mounted this week with the news that a so-called migrant “smuggler” with connections to the Islamic State terrorist group had helped some migrants across the southern border. Such news emerged as America is about to commemorate yet another anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. How comforting.

Immigration is not the only concern that has been pushed aside, however.

Climate challenges: Consider climate change — and the spate of overheated temperatures we've endured this summer. Consider the fact that such basic services such as fire hydrants were not even working when a wildfire swept through the seaside town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Consider the ongoing war in Ukraine and the trickle of military supplies that America is sending.

Those are only a few issues that call for a robust back-and-forth dialogue between our political parties. There are plenty of others.

We need to debate these issues. That is why we have elections.

But first we need to face some facts.

It’s time for our political leaders of both parties to get to work. After all, it’s Labor Day.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Trump, Hunter Biden court cases distract voters from real issues