On Friday, AG Merrick Garland elevated U.S. Attorney David Weiss to the office of special counsel. That came after Weiss reportedly requested the move, a stark turnaround from his past insistence that such a move was unnecessary.

All of this stems from the blown-up sweetheart plea deal that Weiss attempted to push through for Hunter Biden, only being stopped after an honest judge decided to start asking questions. Because of that, Republicans justifiably responded negatively to Weiss being made the special counsel over the probe into the president’s troubled son.

Rep. James Comer, for example, accused Garland of perpetuating a cover-up. The suspicion there is that the appointment of a special counsel is simply to allow the DOJ to move the Hunter Biden charges to a more favorable jurisdiction, where a presumably Democrat-appointed judge will be happy to rubber stamp a plea deal that includes broad immunity.

Whether that’s true or not, CNN had a different take. In fact, while the network’s meltdown somewhat mirrored the angst on the right over the appointment of Weiss, it was for a completely different reason. Namely, Dana Bash and her team of analysts were supremely concerned this would somehow blowback on Joe Biden.

BASH: David Weiss has been working on this for 5 years. Five years. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve sort of covered enough of this to know that 5 years is a really long time. God forbid we bring humanity into this, but to be sort of stringing along & to be having a person’s life in limbo? We’re talking about Hunter Biden and we’re talking about his family, and you know frankly the president’s family.

It’s just incredible to continue to see these supposedly straight-edged journalists rush to defend an abuser like Hunter Biden. This is a man who treated women like commodities (literally), tried to disown his own daughter, and is evidenced to have allegedly committed a series of crimes. According to Bash, though, none of that matters. Rather, we all just need to “bring some humanity into this” so that poor Hunter Biden’s life isn’t left in “limbo.” Why? Because it’s the “president’s family.”

She doesn’t even attempt to hide her biases. It’s silly, but it becomes worse when you consider the context. Besides, while she’s lamenting how long the investigation has taken, the length of it has actually protected Hunter Biden by letting the statute of limitations run out on numerous alleged crimes. The DOJ isn’t treating the president’s son unfairly by dragging this out. Rather, they are going out of their way to make sure he doesn’t face any real semblance of justice.

Later in the broadcast, Bash did manage to find a silver lining after lamenting how terribly Hunter Biden has been treated.

She says it could fuel the Republicans, but the other way to look at it is that it could keep Republicans at bay, because now that you do have a special counsel, which a lot of Republicans were were calling for A and B, I can’t remember if it was a Paula or one of our other reporters make. Maybe you guys are making this point. That while the special counsel is doing his work he can’t, he’s unlikely to talk to to Congress, and it’s unlikely for them to get the information that they’re working toward.

She’s just saying the quiet part out loud there. Rampant speculation has already occurred that Garland elevated Weiss simply to make it more difficult for House Republicans to continue their investigation. Sure enough, that’s exactly what Bash is betting on, though she’s a bit too optimistic about how easy it will be for Weiss to obstruct.

Moving past Bash, panel member Shan Wu was also very upset, mainly because he’s worried this might lead to Joe Biden, and by golly, we just can’t have that.

“Garland again looks like he is just buffeted by political winds. He is so worried about looking political, if Weiss says, ‘Now make me special counsel,’ he says, ‘Yes, yes. I’ll do that.’”

He summarized the attorney general’s missteps, adding, “He should have had better control over this to begin [with],” and argued he should have refused Weiss’ request.

Wu noted that Merrick’s decision “obviously implies” that “the conflict that’s coming up now is, maybe it extends to the president. Because the president’s son, there is no conflict. Relatives of presidents have been looked at before. You don’t need a special counsel or independent counsel.”

I almost feel sorry for Garland. He’s gone out of his way to protect the Biden family over his tenure, and Wu still slams him as mishandling the situation, not because Garland got too political, but because he wasn’t political enough. Even as Wu admits this appointment points toward the president being involved, he says that Garland should have denied Weiss’ request. Why? Is the concern here for the law or ensuring that Joe Biden isn’t touched? That’s a rhetorical question.

Lastly, I do love the idea that when a president’s son is involved in something, “there is no conflict.” Talk about a standard that CNN did not hold during the Trump administration, when the president’s children weren’t just fair game, but were used to paint a broader corruption narrative. Good to see Wu and his colleagues are finally concerned about maintaining that separation.