MSNBC political analyst Claire McCaskill lost it over the GOP’s efforts to investigate Hunter Biden and to criticize his father President Joe Biden during an MSNBC segment on Tuesday.
The former Democratic senator yelled at conservatives to "back off" of the Bidens during an episode of MSNBC’s "Deadline: White House." She defended the president’s son as a man struggling with drug and alcohol problems and promoting his father as someone who is a model of "unconditional love."
McCaskill’s response came after news broke that Hunter Biden reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors on Tuesday.
HUNTER BIDEN AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY IN FEDERAL TAX, GUN CASE
The president’s son pled guilty to two federal charges encompassing tax evasion and agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a gun felony charge. Biden will likely avoid a prison sentence if he complies with the deal, a notion prompting many conservative critics to claim he received a "sweetheart" deal.
McCaskill began her criticism blasting Republicans not satisfied with the deal.
"I don’t know what America they live in and I don’t know how they sleep at night. Alcoholism and addiction are probably the most pervasive diseases in America. I don’t know of one family that hasn’t been touched by the pain of these diseases. And it’s particularly painful when you have someone you love unconditionally that is suffering from these diseases," she said.
The MSNBC analyst defended President Biden for consistently defending his son throughout the investigation, saying, "I think Joe Biden has shown a wonderful role model to the country about unconditional love."
Biden has repeatedly insisted that his son has done "nothing wrong" despite these allegations and investigations swirling for the past few years.
McCaskill slammed the president’s critics on this issue, asking, "What do these jerks in the House want Joe Biden to do? For now, refuse to speak to him, so he doesn’t love him publicly? Do they not understand this disease and how it works?"
She added, "Hunter Biden has gone to recovery under the brightest lights imaginable, and recovery is not easy for anybody. He is being held accountable for bad judgments he made, and he should be. But the point is that he now has to stay sober in order to avoid a felony."
She also said that the president’s son has "paid a very high price for his addiction in the public arena."
Becoming visibly angry, McCaskill scolded GOP investigators and conservative critics to "back off" the president about his son.
"And by the way, everybody needs to back off Joe Biden about this. He loves his son. Back off! It is okay for him to love his son and there’s nothing wrong with it," McCaskill said. "They have no evidence of any kind of wrongdoing by Joe Biden. And it infuriates me that they’re using this heartbreak against Joe Biden in this way. It’s just not right."
