President Joe Biden has pardoned Hunter Biden for all crimes — known and unknown — that his son has committed over the past 11 years.
It’s not a great look for a man who has condemned President-elect Donald Trump’s attacks on impartial law enforcement, declaring that “No one is above the law,” and Repeatedly promised that he will not Forgive her son.
the president justified Hunter was shielded from criminal liability by arguing that her son had been “selectively and unfairly prosecuted.” Hunter Biden was convicted of lying on federal gun applications and failing to pay his taxes, crimes that virtually never inspire criminal charges, the president said. That Hunter was not only prosecuted for such indiscretions—but so aggressively accused that he was 3 years imprisonment – Reflecting a politically biased process, Biden argued: If he wasn’t the child of a top GOP political opponent, Hunter wouldn’t be facing hard time for such a minor crime.
This is a reasonable argument. But then, one could reasonably argue that New York has never investigated anyone other than Donald Trump for concealing hush payments to a porn star lover. And in that case, Biden emphasized that The law was the law.
All that said, it’s not hard to understand Biden’s hypocrisy. His only surviving son has been staring at years in prison, likely due to Biden’s own decision to seek the presidency (which cast a spotlight on his troubled, addiction-prone child). The incoming president, meanwhile, has promised to investigate the Biden family for further crimes. Joe Biden had the power to protect his child from incarceration and more selective prosecution. I doubt most fathers in his shoes did as he did.
But Biden is not just a father. However, he was, for a few more weeks, the de facto leader of the Democratic Party. And this forgiveness doesn’t do his fellow party members any favors.
On the contrary, it reinforces the narrative that Democrats are visibly terrified of Trump Use of government power for personal gain holy pose If all parties are corrupt, why not ruthlessly turn back the shameless crooks who promise to put America first? This kind of (deluded) sentiment has badly undermined Democrats in recent years. And Hunter Biden’s pardon lends credence to such logic.
More specifically, Biden makes it more difficult for Democrats to claim the moral high ground in the upcoming battle over Trump’s abuse of power. The already elected president hinted That he intends to pardon the rioters en masse on January 6, an act that may encourage other MAGA aspirants willing to commit illegal acts in the service of their leader.
Fortunately, Democrats now have an opportunity to demonstrate the sincerity of their ideals, while mitigating one of their party’s biggest political liabilities — all while loudly and uniformly denouncing Biden’s pardon as an abuse of power.
Indeed, from a certain angle, Biden may have done his party a favor. The president’s extraordinary unpopularity has weighed on Democrats for years now. During the 2024 campaign, the party’s ability to distance itself from the Biden administration was limited, since its standard-bearer was its second-in-command.
But now that Harris 2024 is gone, Democrats face little need to defend Biden’s brand. And his motivation to step out of the shadows has only grown since Election Day. According to both Gallup And 538 votesBiden’s approval rating has fallen since the election, with Americans now disapproving of him by a 19-point margin in subsequent assessments. Meanwhile, exit polls, A record high 45 percent showed Voters say they feel worse off under the current administration.
Thus, even before Hunter’s pardon, it was in the Democrats’ interest to break loudly with their president. Now, the party has a way to do this without involving anyone else in their sky. Biden’s rant on inflation involves insulting every Democratic member of Congress who voted for the president’s monetary policy (which is still Their recommendations on merit are many) convicting the president of pardoning his son, by contrast, harms no one but the president, whose career in Democratic politics is over.
To be sure, many voters won’t notice the Democrats’ massive disavowal of Biden, while others will see it as an ugly ploy. Taking Biden to task for pardoning his son won’t solve all of the party’s problems. And this whole episode will fade out of public consciousness by the 2026 midterms, let alone the 2028 presidential election.
But the project of wringing the Democratic brand out of a presidency that voters dislike — however delusionally — has to start somewhere. By pardoning Hunter, Biden gave both his son and his team a fresh start. Democrats should seize it.
