Joe Pardons Hunter
Pardon me boy: President Joe Biden has issued a blanket pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, for all offenses Hunter has committed or may have committed from January 1, 2014, through yesterday. Said pardon is “full and unconditional,” and pertains to any alleged criminal wrongdoing. Hunter Biden is off the hook for tax fraud and for improperly procuring a firearm while addicted to drugs; he is also protected from any future inquiry into alleged influence peddling.
This total immunity represents a complete and utter betrayal of a campaign promise. When he ran for reelection, Biden told the public in no uncertain terms that a presidential pardon was off the table. He also said, unambiguously, that he “will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process.”
Reporters frequently asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about this possibility, and she always affirmed Biden’s position that no pardon would be offered.
A compilation of every time KJP was asked if Biden is going to pardon Hunter and every time she said no.pic.twitter.com/i4hEeVEpjN
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) December 2, 2024
In his statement, Biden attempted to justify the pardon on the grounds that “no reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.” In terms of the gun conviction, there’s some truth to that. As Reason‘s Jacob Sullum has argued, the statute that Hunter violated is “widely flouted, haphazardly enforced, and constitutionally dubious.” The tax fraud issue is another matter; such charges are “routinely brought against people who are not political targets,” argues The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Chait.
More seriously, the presidential pardon is so robust that it offers Hunter Biden protection from as yet unproven allegations of influence peddling on behalf of foreign business interests. An earlier attempt to grant Hunter such protection in exchange for pleading guilty on tax-related offenses collapsed after a federal judge balked at the degree of immunity being conferred on him.
There’s no sugarcoating what the elder Biden has done: He has issued what may well be remembered as the most disreputable presidential pardon in the U.S. history, and he has done it at a time when his party is attempting to make the argument that President-elect Donald Trump is a unique and pernicious threat to democracy, law and order, and American political norms.
“In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me—and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here,” wrote Biden in his statement. “Enough is enough.”
Reactions to the pardon have not been favorable to Biden—even from his own party. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis castigated Biden for putting “family ahead of country.”
While as a father I certainly understand President @JoeBiden‘s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.…
— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) December 2, 2024
Election analyst Nate Silver derided Biden as a “selfish and senile old man.”
A selfish and senile old man.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) December 2, 2024
Liberal pundit Matt Yglesias called on Democrats to demand a constitutional amendment to limit the pardon powers of the president.
Democrats with half a brain should denounce this Biden move and call for a c
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