Despite assurances that he had no intentions to pardon his son from the president as well as aides as recently as a week ago, President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday. The blanket pardon wipes out his criminal convictions on tax and gun charges and protects him from additional prosecution for any crimes “he has committed or may have committed or taken part in” between 2014 to the present. That is the year Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, while his father was the sitting vice president of the United States. The younger Biden’s role has been the focus of investigations that allege Hunter Biden was given the position for access to the V.P. and that undocumented money may have even changed hands to benefit the Biden family. President Biden and Hunter Biden have denied any wrongdoing.

Hunter Biden was found guilty in June of three federal felony gun charges related to the buying and possessing a firearm while he was an illegal drug user as documented in his own autobiography. He was also convicted in a Los Angeles court in September on three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. Sentencing for his gun charges in Delaware was set for Dec. 12, while sentencing for the tax charges was set for Dec. 16 in California. Hunter Biden faced up to 25 years in prison on the gun charges and as many as 17 years on the tax offenses. 

It was not looking like it was going to be a very merry Christmas in the Hunter Biden household. But then, not every felon has a dad for a president.

In a statement, President Biden said:

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. 
 
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election…

“…Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.  

“…Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.” 

Reaction

Both Republicans and Democrats were quick to condemn the move.

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” president-elect Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”

“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities…President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability,” Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.) said on X. Comer is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has investigated the allegations against the Biden family.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat said the elder Biden “put his family ahead of the country” and set “a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

“I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” wrote Rep. Greg Stanton (D., Ariz.) on X.

The Trump Effect

President-Elect Trump has said he would pardon every person charged in the January 6 protests and riots at the nation’s capital on Day 1 of his presidency. His pardon of Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, in 2020 for a 2004 conviction on filing false tax returns, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and retaliating against a witness is again in the spotlight as well after nominating Kushner as the ambassador to France.

In an interview, Trump had even said he would consider pardoning Hunter Biden or that it was at least “not off the table” once he became president again.

With Trump’s strong performance in the recent election indicating even to Democrats that some of their more extreme, left-leaning policies simply weren’t resonating with many Americans, there has been much handwringing and angst among the Democratic Party as they look at steps they can take to regain the electorate’s faith.

Said one House Democrat interviewed by Axios, “At this point, we are sissies compared to Trump and everyone around him.”

Maybe Biden felt driven to make one final decision as president that was firmly his and reassert his role as president under the Democratic Party banner. It is common practice for outgoing presidents to issue pardons, but this may be the first time one has issued one for his son. Certainly, his decision to step aside to allow Kamala Harris to run for the presidency was forced upon him, and as a lame duck president, even since before the election, he has been largely absent from any policy making or headline-grabbing decisions.

Or maybe he just loves his son like any father and said, “country be damned, I’m going to help my boy.”

It’s hard to blame him, especially given that his political career is done and his son was in trouble. 

Aging and with his mental acuity visibly weakening, Biden, whose political career began in 1970 when he was elected to the New Castle County (Delaware) Council, enjoys little prospect that he will retire to an “emeritus” position like Barack Obama in forging Democratic Party operations and policy. With a dismal approval rating and an even more ineffectual presidency book-ended by two Trump presidencies, Biden is already leaving with a tarnished legacy. Political commentator and historian Bill O’Reilly has called Biden “the second worst president” in the history of the United States, falling only behind James Buchanan, whose ineptness led to the Civil War in 1861.

Once Trump assumes office January 20, America will hear little more from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, who will unceremoniously not so much ride off into the sunset as will likely be driven in a motorcade of black Chevy Suburbans.

The Problem This Creates for Democrats

Even if President Biden’s decision in pardoning his son and not trusting the move to President-Elect Trump was purely made for personal and emotional reasons after reflection while spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Hunter Biden, his earlier forceful denials that he wouldn’t issue a pardon simply reinforces his detractor’s accusations that he is a “liar.” Indeed, it only hardens the resolve of those who cast their votes for Trump that it was the right decision to re-elect him.

Biden’s pardon is emblematic of the way much of the Democratic Party has operated, and clearly, the way Kamala Harris’ campaign, was run. Say whatever you need to at the moment for political expediency and then do what you really want to do once you’re in position to make that decision. 

Gun policy is a clear example of this approach. Harris and the Democrats pushing her presidency have historically attacked the Second Amendment at every opportunity, though as soon as Harris needed to appeal to a broader electorate, suddenly she was a proud gun owner who “wasn’t going to take your guns away.” Few people believed her message and even Harris at times seemed like she could barely keep a straight face when speaking it.

Whether the topic is gun rights, immigration or a host of other issues, the Democratic playbook has become obvious to many Americans. It’s a familiar scene like the one in “The Wizard of Oz,” where Dorothy and her crew spy the man behind the curtain working the image and voice of the wizard and discover the great wizard is a sham: “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Great Oz has spoken.”

If there is criticism to be laid down in President Biden’s decision to pardon his son, maybe that’s where it should be placed, Biden, after all was just following the playbook.