To the surprise of practically no one, “family man” Joe Biden announced Sunday, after discovering a “miscarriage of justice,” that he had authorized a full pardon for his son Hunter, whom he once called the smartest man he knows.
Hunter did not return the compliment.
That the elder, and impaired, Biden did it was not the surprise, nor the issue.
The issue was that he had promised several times he would not do it, and in his statement said he made the decision this past weekend. But the rest of his statement doesn’t support that.
Sounding exactly like Donald J. Trump, and with almost the same degree of justification, he said Hunter’s prosecution was politically motivated, that if Hunter were not his son charges would not have been brought. You can read the statement here.
Does Biden think we have his memory problems?
The “political” charges were brought by his Department of Justice, headed by Merrick Garland, the man he himself placed in the attorney general’s chair.
Trump claims his prosecutions were brought by his enemies. Hunter’s prosecutions were brought by Biden friends.
Politically motivated or not, the question is this: Is he guilty or not guilty? If there are no consequences for his son, why should there be consequences for anyone’s son?
The elder Biden opened his statement by saying he kept his word to not interfere with the Department of Justice’s decision-making, and he did not.
He only interfered with the outcome, which he found to be a miscarriage maybe after getting groggy on turkey tryptophan on Thanksgiving.
He is not talking turkey to us. His statement is as filled with stuffing as his earlier false claims of superior achievement in college, rewriting British politician Neil Kinnock’s ideas and background as his own, and claims he was “shot at” in Iraq’s Green Zone. And there were more from the man who called himself a “gaffe machine.”
But this was no gaffe. It was deliberate, intentional, and poorly reasoned.
Toward the end of his statement, Biden writes, “I have followed a simple principle: Just tell the American people the truth.”
That he could write that and not be struck by lightning amazes me. The paper must be asbestos to have not burst into flames.
His statement weakly tries to justify the pardon, and I am disheartened by the many who say they would have done the same thing for their sons.
They authorize a double standard of justice — one for “real” criminals, and another for family members.
Would I have done it? No. And I write that knowing my son reads this blog. As TV detective Tony Baretta used to say, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts in Hunter’s cases,” Biden writes, “can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”
So the jury that convicted him on three felony gun counts was not reasonable? And if you are OK with wiping away these gun charges, you lose your right to complain about other illegal guns “on the street.” And, no, that he was a drug addict is not a valid defense.
Hunter pleaded guilty to the tax charges.
The score: One case, jury finds him guilty. Second case, Hunter admits guilt.
All the cranberry sauce about “unfair” penalties are inconsequential. The dude did it.
Despite what he says, Joe Biden’s actions show that he lied to the American people, and not for the first time.
And maybe not even the last. He still has seven weeks to go.
Biden ran for President KNOWING his son was an addict and HE LIED about him not taking Chinese money and the laptop. It goes with the territory. You can’t say on one hand that my justice dept is fair and obeys the law when they go after my political opponents yet it isn’t fair when they go after my son. The dems can no longer say that Trump was fairly prosecuted.
Except…Biden is not “the dems.” See, for example, “Democrats openly criticize Biden’s pardon: ‘No family should be above the law’ ” https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/02/white-house-biden-pardon-flip-flop-00192149
As far as I can tell, there are not a whole lot of people defending this, other than the White House.
Lesson learned (yet again for the zillionth time) and some conjecture.
Lesson: never (and that means absolutely never, ever) believe a politician. Wait for the action to define a pol’s grit. All that sizzle that we constantly hear – the steak is rarely there. The noise is piped in to tantalize and fool our senses, like the aroma of fresh-baked goods wafting through the air over the laundry detergent shelves in the supermarket.
Conjecture about the timing of the President pardoning his son now. First – I’ve been told that in the criminal justice system, a defendant is not “officially” convicted until sentencing is imposed. Hunter was scheduled for sentencing in each of his two felony cases later this month. The pardon means that Hunter can now regard himself as technically having never been convicted of a felony. The jury said “yes” in Delaware and he pled guilty in California – but the system says otherwise. Anyway, he can now properly apply for a gun license and honestly answer that he was never convicted of a felony (those applications don’t ask if you’ve been pardoned!!).
And, by pardoning his son, President Biden precludes the opportunity for incoming President Trump to show any magnanimity by granting clemency or a pardon to Hunter – especially if done very early in his Term as part of a group grant of clemency/pardons.
The talking heads will cluck their tongues and there will be a media frenzy for about a week. And then, this act will be relegated to the dung heap of political folly that punctuates the life of every politician. Sometimes they just do what they gotta do. For President Biden, there are no consequences for him to bear.
Yes, I just learned that if sentence is not imposed, person is not technically guilty. So (not) ex con, former drug addict Hunter CAN legally buy a gun. Just great.
Stu,
I am glad President Biden pardoned his son. The plea deal was eliminated because of politics. This is what pardons are designed for. A guilty person gets off.
If we can have a criminal as President of the United States, our current President can surely pardon his son who had drug issues and has rehabbed, even if he said he would not pardon him. Everyone is entitled to change their mind; even you my friend.
except he lied !! He always intended to pardon him,
See my response to freeze on one issue. On the other, Trump, two wrongs don’t make a right and I expect you to be quiet when Trump pardons the 1/6 rioters.
I think the pardon was wrong. But if you squint just right, you can see the reasoning that people, that is, voters, don’t care.
Me, I swore I’d never vote for Hillary after the Marc Rich and other pardons the Clintons made on their way out the White House. I was outraged by Trump’s pardons of his friends, allies, war criminals, GOP donors and family (Jared’s father), and his promise to pardon the J6 rioters, not to mention promising to free “on day one” the biggest drug dealer in history, the creator of the Dark Web’s “Silk Road” Ross Ulbricht who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. (Even if he had only gotten the minimum of 20 years, he’d be in prison until 2035–so if the sentence was “overly harsh” it ain’t yet.)
Politicians respond to incentives. It was one thing when Trump lost in 2020, to Biden’s pledge to restore normalcy and the norms of government–no pardons for cronies appeared to be what the voters wanted. But, plausibly from Biden’s standpoint, Trump’s election in 2024 rejected that position in favor of norm-breaking cronyism and rule-breaking. Virtue, it turned out, was not its own reward. And, as they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Why suffer, or see your son suffer, when everyone thinks this kind of stuff is fine and dandy?
Maybe it was his plan all along to pardon Hunter, but maybe not. It may be just a big middle finger to the American electorate: “this is what you want, then fine.” If we don’t want self-dealing pardons, we shouldn’t elect people who give them out.
What Biden should have said as follows: ” I have pardoned my son because he’s my son.
You didn’t really believe I was serious when I said I wouldn’t?” That would have been refreshingly
honest.
Yes. Not promising anything would have been better.
I was willing tp give him the benefit of doubt when he said he would not comment. He has eliminated all doubt.
Good riddance to the worst and most corrupt president ever. He is responsible for so much hurt in our country and around the world. He is a disgrace. And the people who voted him in should be ashamed of themselves. What a wasted 4years. Everyone believed the lies from the democrats and the corrupt media that they said about Trump. They weren’t paying attention to the great things he accomplished during his first term. I hope they pay attention this time. Things are starting to change already and he’s not in office yet. You can feel the optimism in the air. How refreshing .
This POS president suffered no consequences from opening our borders to all sorts of criminals, but in pardoning his son we want to cut his balls off. Amazing that we can swallow elephants and choke on a flea.
I missed the comment about balls. Please cut and paste.
Hyperbole, my friend. You use its all the time.
Got your card. You beat me.
Daniel, Vince and Joe Biden all speak with bifurcated tongue.
Percentage of people in this country who are tried and convicted on such charges: less than 1%. I would also pardon my son in this case. Sorry, not sorry.
And for the “oh he lied” people: kindly phuck off. Your orange god has lied literally thousands of times and pardoned a shit-ton of high-level criminals, and you are absolutely fine with it. You wanna do an accounting of the number of lies or pardons? I don’t think you do.
Mind you, I would not accept such a pardon for ANYONE but a son or daughter. If Trump’s dopey kids got arrested (a distinct possibility considering junior’s obvious drug use), I would expect Trump to pardon him, and I would understand it.
Since EVERYONE is SOMEONE’S son, you would send NO ONE to jail. That is the logic of your position.
No one is above the law, except sons?
Stu I cannot believe you do not understand what freeze is saying. What he said was if the President is pardoning their own son or daughter he can understand that.
Once again you prove what an idiot you are.
You need to keep quiet Danny boy. You hold the records for proving yourself to be an idiot, an asshole and just a plain dumb fuck.
The orange God is back. Watch him make America great again. MAGA😂
OMG–a politician lied and we’re all in our knickers about it. They all lie, (remember George Bush and the WMD’s?), they all pardon guilty people for a myriad of reasons, most not really legit because they’re friends or relatives. C’mon people, what shocks me is that you’re all shocked.