Days later, I'm still furious that President Biden granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to his troubled surviving son.
And yet, reluctantly, I have to say that I would have done the same thing, minus some of the misleading and self-pitying passages in Biden's official report. statement.
opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical look to the national political scene. He has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
First the bad. With the pardon of Hunter Biden, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and it was separate convicted of lying On his drug addiction in a gun petition, Joe Biden put his family ahead of his loyalty to the promise that animated his presidency: restoring the rules of government and the rule of law after both were shattered by his predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden, who is different been stingy By using the powerful presidential power of the Constitution, his nepotistic act adds to the pile of stale pardons accumulated by modern presidents of both parties, including Trump's first term. subsidies to an offending family member, sleazy allies, donors and war criminals.
In Biden's statement justifying his release card for Hunter, he echoed Trump's tirades about an armed justice system. That alone contributes to many Americans' loss of faith in their own institutions and gives Trump cover for his false claims of victimhood. Although Hunter Biden's name explains why he faced gun and tax charges, for which most Americans would not be prosecuted similarly – like even the Republicans have recognized, there is a other side of the coin: Hunter negotiated that name to sell his supposed influence worldwide. Yet despite years of investigations by the feds and House Republicans, he faced no charges for those dealings.
The main reason to oppose the pardon is this: Joe Biden lied to us.
The man who likes say “I give you my word as Biden” broke it here, betraying himself and us. He didn't have to make the “non-forgiveness” promise, or allow his spokesperson to do so as recently as last month. I could have dodged the question.
Instead, in June, then-candidate Biden said he would “abide by the decision of the jury” that had just convicted Hunter of the gun lie. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre assured reporters the following month that the pardon “was still a no. It will be a no.” And last month, after Trump's election and before Hunter Biden's sentencing scheduled for December 16, Jean-Pierre stressed: “Our answer is valid, which is no.”
So Joe deserves the bipartisan reaction he's getting. But how about a reaction against the reaction? For me, one consideration trumps all others, pun intended, in excusing the president: the deplorable Trump is about to regain power.
If any other Republican had been elected on the 2024 ticket (say, Nikki Haley or Tim Scott, even Ron DeSanctimonious), there would be no justification for absolutist hunter. But those Republicans weren't elected, Trump was, and he is the vengeful former and future president who fiance last year to “appoint a true special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family.”
Given such explicit threats and Trump's history in his first term of trying to politicize the Justice Department and the FBI, Why should Biden leave his son to Trump's non-existent mercies? Especially once Trump demonstrated with his election willing executors for his new administration how serious he is about retaliation.
The president-elect's first choice for attorney general, attack dog and former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, fell under the weight of his own legal troubles. Then Trump turned to the former Florida prosecutor. General Pam Bondi, a long-time loyalist who has explicitly asked for revenge against those considered responsible for Trump's legal problems: “The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted. … Investigators will be investigated.”
And on Saturday, Trump taken advantage of MAGA henchman Kash Patel will be FBI director. Patel's credentials? Last year produced a literal enemies list for Trump and separately saying would prosecute Hunter Biden as a foreign agent, regardless of past investigations that produced nothing.
As former federal prosecutor and law professor Joyce Vance wrote Recently, by way of justifying the pardon, Trump as president could have made Hunter Biden's life in federal prison “extremely difficult.”
And a Trumpian Justice Department could have redoubled efforts to charge him with foreign dealings dating back to his father's time as vice president, as Patel has suggested. Forgiveness prevents that kind of real witch hunt.
President Biden has time to make up for the almost unforgivable pardon. He could support an effort, even if it's a pipe dream, to amend the Constitution to repeal or at least reform presidents' unchecked pardon power.
Better yet, because it is possible to achieve it before January 20, Biden could put his aides to work on a long list of pardons for unknown Americans truly wronged by the justice system and who deserve mercy. This pattern of presidents tainting the office by leaving it with clemency for the connected should end, even if the pardon power lives on.
@jackiekcalmes
