President Biden’s hypocrisy on full display: Pardons his own son after making a point about ‘independent’ justice"
In a move that’s being hailed as a “full and unconditional” pardon, President Joe Biden has announced that he’s granting his son Hunter Biden a free pass for all federal charges related to his time between 2014-2024. Just 50 days before leaving office, Biden had previously declared that he wouldn’t be making the move, stating he’d abide by the jury’s decision. But now, it seems he was just playing a different tune.
TL;DR
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing up to 25 years in prison for lying on a federal form about his drug addiction. This comes after months of saying he wouldn’t make the move, and is being met with criticism from politicians and others who called him out on his earlier stance. A case of “my family is more important than I am” - how about keeping your promises for once?
Is he though? Isn’t one of the purposes of presidential pardons to protect a person from unjust political persecution. If Republicans weren’t Trump’s party I would agree it’s nepotism, but it is Trump’s party who will be in power. Trump has vowed to seek revenge on his opponents. Joe Biden is too old to really be punished as much as the Republicans want him to be, but Hunter Biden has many years left. MAGA Republicans could punish him for their hate of his father for at least four years, if not the rest of his life. Isn’t that one of the purposes of a presidential pardon?
“Unjust political persecution” - in whose eyes? Trump pardoned a lot of his cronies (for a likely quid-pro-quo) that were involved in J6 - is that a good use of pardon powers?
A president’s or governor’s pardon is inherently anti-democratic and political. One person gets to decide if the Justice System is allowed to finish it’s work or not, and thus we avoid having to address the why that in/justice was done by the system in the first place. When Biden pardoned non-violent drug offenders, that was a good use of pardon to reincorporate people who had erred and give them a second chance in society - but it did nothing for those who will fall foul of those same laws still on the federal register. The same with every death penalty clemency - we solve the scenario without addressing the issue.