Biden Shouldn't Sacrifice Son When Voters Value Cheap Gas Over Democracy
MAGA won’t have Hunter Biden to kick around anymore.
President Joe Biden just ended his son Hunter Biden’s long national nightmare, and this pardon is serving as a public IQ test for politicians and pundits. Republicans have of course denounced the pardon, which is as predictable as they are shameless. These people just nominated and fully supported a perpetual motion crime machine for president. There was considerable discussion over whether Trump could pardon his own ass, and Republicans weren’t just OK with the prospect, a GOP-backed House bill would’ve moved his state cases to federal court where he could bury them. However, that’s all academic now because Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice preemptively surrendered to Trump’s lawlessness. Nonetheless, critics of Hunter Biden’s pardon argue that Biden’s actions just make it easier for Trump to shatter norms.
Former UN Ambassador John Bolton posted on social media, “Biden is doing exactly the wrong thing by pardoning Hunter. This will now give Trump the license to pardon all of his supporters including those from Jan 6th.”
Trump doesn’t need permission or an excuse to pardon the people who stormed the Capitol on his behalf. He’s repeatedly stated he would “consider” doing so since he launched his third campaign. Voters already granted him a license to steal justice.
Hunter’s pardon is one of the least corrupt in history
Donald Trump infamously abused the pardon power, leveraging it as a tool to keep his criminal conspirators quiet. He pardoned Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress, specifically to protect Trump. He pardoned his 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was convicted for tax and banking crimes in 2018. He pardoned former 2016 campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who admitted that he’d lied to investigators during the Russia investigation. He pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who he’d told to “stay strong” during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
He pardoned fellow convicted felon Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and has just appointed him ambassador to France.
Trump pardoned former GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret, who’d misused campaign funds. He pardoned former GOP Rep. Chris Collins, who’d pleaded guilty to securities fraud. He pardoned “Scooter” Libby and Dinesh D’Souza. Trump also considered proactively pardoning his own family members.
Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton and financier Marc Rich, a major donor to the Democratic Party and Clinton’s presidential library.
George H.W. Bush pardoned a half dozen people for their involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Ronald Reagan pardoned George Steinbrenner, who was convicted of illegal contributions to Richard Nixon and obstruction of justice in 1974.
Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, who was in fact a crook.
Joe Biden pardoned his son, who Republicans were intent on giving the full Sonny Corleone.
“Nobody’s above the law, we’ve been screaming,” Joe Walsh said. “Well, Joe Biden just made clear his son Hunter is above the law.”
Hunter Biden’s pardon doesn’t put him above the law. It just ensures he’s not buried beneath it. As Biden noted, there was an obvious effort to break Hunter like a political piñata. Objective legal experts have confirmed that average people with his bad judgment aren’t usually prosecuted for his offenses.
Biden is 82. His life could very well end while Trump is back in the White House, his greatest failure mocking him to the grave. Should he also die while his only son is in prison — all for crimes that were only prosecuted because he was president? (“No need to respond. That was rhetorical.”)
Anti-Trump conservative Charlie Sykes posted on social media, “Smart person texts me: ‘Joe Biden has just removed the issue of pardons from the political arena for the next four years and Trump probably once again can’t believe his own dumb fucking luck at this point’ Sadly, I think he’s right.” Unless this person’s first name is “Maxwell,” I’m not sure how smart he is.
The entire Never Trump coalition lamented Biden’s pardon, suggesting it will somehow make it harder to resist Trump on the moral grounds that voters have consistently rejected.
Even after this most recent election, institutionalists still cling to traditions and norms. Voters just elected a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist because they were upset about the cost of eggs. They clearly prioritize omelets over norms.
Institutionalists assume that if Democrats lay back while their asses are kicked, people will compliment their dignified asses, but voters never do. They just say, “What a bunch of asses.”
Voters clearly don’t care that Trump was a crook and that his entire family personally enriched themselves during his first crime spree administration.
Never Trumpers clearly have the wrong idea about the supposed values of Republican voters, yet they maintain an audience among the self-righteous and gullible, particularly centrist Democrats. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis criticized the pardon, and US Senator from Colorado Michael Bennet said Biden put “personal interest ahead of duty.” Well, they’ve at least won the respect of Nate Silver, who declared that no one should consider voting for a Democrat who didn’t publicly denounce the pardon within 48 hours. (That’s quite the arbitrary deadline. It’s less time than the customary window for consuming Thanksgiving Day leftovers.)
Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine condemned Biden’s “unpardonable hypocrisy.” Biden had previously said he wouldn’t pardon Hunter, and apparently, Chait defines “hypocrisy” as “changing your mind based on new information,” which includes the country embracing Trump’s vicious thuggery while openly rejecting Biden’s demonstrated decency.
If Republicans had nominated Nikki Haley and she’d cleaned Biden’s clock, he probably wouldn’t have pardoned Hunter. He might not have even after Trump won. However, Trump immediately nominated as attorney general Matt Gaetz, who is hardly impartial about Hunter Biden. During a House committee hearing, Gaetz accused FBI Director Christopher Wray of “protecting” the Bidens. (Watch below.)
When Gaetz’s nomination went up in flames, Trump picked his first annual impeachment counsel Pam Bondi, who’d publicly smeared Hunter Biden as part of the smoke and mirrors defense for Trump’s Ukraine extortion. (Watch below.)
The mainstream media refuse to put Hunter Biden’s pardon in its larger context. Last Friday, Trump announced that he planned to install partisan hack Kash Patel as the next FBI director. Patel has previously claimed that Hunter’s original plea deal was a “get out of jail free” card and pushed the “Biden crime family” narrative. These aren’t impartial actors.
Considering who Trump will place in charge of the Department of Justice and the FBI, Biden should probably also pardon himself, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Alexander Vindman, and Jesse Watters’ mother.
Very serious thinkers wrote op-eds arguing that Biden should pardon Trump. It was considered “good politics” that would somehow heal the nation because it’s “dangerously divisive” to prosecute the man who committed all the crimes. Yet, most of these same people are horrified that Biden would pardon his own son. Not to get all Ayn Rand but one shouldn’t conflate selflessness with stupidity.
I’ve seen far too many anti-pardon arguments that start with “a father saving his son is admirable, but …” No, there’s no “but” here. Nothing should matter more to a father than keeping his children safe, especially from threats that only exist because of his father’s job. Hunter Biden might’ve still been a loser if his father hadn’t run for president in 2020, but his life has objectively gotten worse during his father’s administration. And that has nothing to do with the price of eggs.
Republicans have succeeded in making Biden a one-term president whose ultimate legacy is questionable. It’s fair that he should act like a lame duck president who has nothing left to lose. However, even if he did, he should still put his family first. Before the final, likely fatal, battle against the bad guys in the Angel series finale, Angel tells his son Connor to go home and stay safe. This makes no sense to Connor who says, “They’ll destroy you,” but Angel responds, “As long as you’re OK, they can’t.”
I wouldn’t understand the full weight of that line until my own son was born. That sentiment doesn’t change if your child is 10 or 50. There’s no legitimate reason Biden should sacrifice his son on the MAGA altar.
Beautiful job, Stephen.
I can’t help but notice the swiftness with which the never-Trumpers at the Bulwark, the Lincoln project, and other conservative online outlets have joined the clutched-pearls brigades over Biden’s pardon of his son. They may have disassociated themselves from Trump since 2016-2020, but as we knew they would all along, they’re reverting to their true selves. And having perched above it all by showily condemning Trump and carving out a form of neutrality regarding the whole mess, they left the door open to themselves to now feel free to weigh in on Biden’s lame-duck decisions. In conclusion, fuck them.
Here we can just look at how Murc's Law (It's Cruise Control for Cool!) works. Look at how all the people come out of the woodwork and tut-tut Joe Biden en masse. And of course some Democrats go along with it because, well, we don't have a godking.
SER deftly notes that the (Republican-owned) mass media arms don't put this pardon in the larger context. And that is on purpose. By eliding the context of Hunter Biden's pardon it achieves the dual purpose of sliming the Democrats and at the same time covering for Republican perfidy. And this helps protect the Republicans who will grant the owners their tasty, tasty tax cuts.
Indeed, also as pointed out, this is happening at the same time Charles Kushner is nominated to a post. Numerous figures being tapped for President Klan Robe's second maladministration have either been pardoned or have active legal and/or civil exposure.
What a country!