Of Course Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/joe-biden-hunter-pardon-was-right-mystal/
Of Course Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/joe-biden-hunter-pardon-was-right-mystal/
33 comments
What’s unnerving is that Trump and his supporters claim that this warrants even broader immunities for Trump.
Hunter Biden was excoriated and dragged through the mud for 5 years as the target of relentless partisan inquiries and investigations, media smear campaigns, political scrutiny, public harassment, which all amounted to a waste of time, because in the end, He was prosecuted for a crime the tens of thousands of Americans get away with every year. If Trump were prosecuted for lying on a gun form, his supporters would be having a collective conniption fit.
Even most authorities on the matter have called the prosecution highly unusual due to how infrequently it is prosecuted in the first place, let alone including the involvement of Congressional committees, special counsels, and the DOJ.
There is a massive difference between targeting the president’s son in such a brazen manner and investigating a series of crimes committed by a former president, who is a serial fraud and known notoriously for his criminal misconduct and abuse of the justice system. And crimes that are all far more grievous and damning than anything Republicans could even fantasize about implicating Hunter Biden for.
Not only that, but by comparison, Trump has committed more crimes and subsequent investigations were backed by clearer and more incriminating evidence.
This is not just a flagrant false equivalence, but also a double standard.
If you compare the situations of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump side by side, you should be able to conclude that the differences are extensive. Thinking that Hunter’s pardon justifies even more immunities for Trump is absurd.
Hell, prior to this pardon, I wasn’t trying to justify it by pointing to the rampant cronyism and favoritism that Trump legitimized after he pardoned several corrupt allies and co-conspirators, some of which he’s welcomed back into his inner circle.
Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”
But Trump uses this exact same language to describe the countless indictments, investigations, and lawsuits against *him*. All of which were warranted to some degree.
Donald Trump has not only been exploiting his wealth, power, and privilege to game the justice system throughout his entire life, while evading accountability for his crimes and misconduct, but even as president, he used his executive privilege to avoid being incriminated for his blatant and frequent attempts to obstruct justice.
Since then, he has been granted broad immunities by a kowtowing group of loyalists, immunities and privileges he has used to obstruct and delay the legal process.
Trump has also made a number of unconstitutional threats against his political opponents and adversaries, warning them that he intends to abuse his power as president to seek retribution against them.
This is a man who has been involved in over 4,000 legal cases as well, many of which illustrate his penchant for fraud, coercion, elusiveness and corruption.
Trump has literally been charged with “defrauding the United States,” with conspiring to overturn an election, with disenfranchising tens of millions of Americans, with intimidating election officials into manipulating the vote for him, with attempting to install loyalists into positions of power within agencies like the DOJ, where they can help *him* steal the election. All of which Trump has been able to avoid convictions for due to his recent election win and his exploitation of the justice system. By contrast, Hunter was charged and actually convicted of lying on a gun form… He was also charged with not paying his taxes, which he eventually paid back.
Trump has established himself as an infamous and serial cheater. He cheats on his wives, he cheats on his taxes, he lies about his wealth and the value of his properties, he even cheats at golf…
And despite all this, when Joe Biden offers his son a pardon, after he was maligned for years, humiliated and scandalized, investigated by Congress, special counsel, and by the DOJ… after he became the target of relentless partisan inquiries and committee hearings, after the public harassment, the political scrutiny, the Media smear campaigns, all of which amounted to a waste of time, but eventually ended in him being prosecuted for a crime that most Americans get away with every year, a prosecution that even authorities on the matter have called highly unusual, after all of this, Donald Trump should be granted yet another immunity claim? Should be held to an even lower standard? Face less accountability?
This is just like what happened during Harris’s campaign. Because Donald Trump is a notorious and serial shitstirrer, because his absurdity has magically rendered him benign, because corruption, malfeasance, cronyism, obstruction of justice, the endless incoherent ramblings and emotional tirades at rallies, public events, during interviews, press conferences, via TruthSocial, etc, because his violent rhetoric and unconstitutional threats are just another day for Donald Trump, we’ve practically sane washed and normalized his misconduct.
So the bar for Trump remains perpetually low, while his opponents are held to such a high standard that they’re expected to be irreproachable by comparison.
Rules for thine, not for mine.
Only lesson here is that powerful people don’t give a shit about the rules that apply to the rest of us.
Joe Biden pardoning his son for a crime doesn’t seem that strange at all. Joe Biden issuing a blanket pardon for everything he has done for the past 11 years, even though he hasn’t been charged with the crimes, is a bit extraordinary.
The burning question I’ve decided is my philosophical purpose in life is how can I distinguish the “good” thing from the “right” thing? Usually, they are one and the same. But not always.
Always try to do the right thing even if it isn’t a good thing.
The general consensus I have been reading across liberal and conservative forums is that Biden was wrong to pardon Hunter, but as a parent, everyone would have done the same in Biden’s shoes.
The new head of the FBI was going to go after a private citizen. I’m glad he did it.
Meanwhile, Roger Stone didn’t get prosecuted for a lot bigger back tax issue than Hunter Biden had.
Bunch of sad hypocrites. If you really care about doing something about republican terrorism, cheering on Biden’s pardon isn’t the way. It makes the situation worse. Democrats need to get off their fucking asses and start fighting back.
I don’t know how anyone gives any fucks after the guy convicted on dozens of felonies got elected.
None of this shit is right. When Trump did this shit we all got pissed as fuck. I’m not celebrating Biden being a huge hypocrite and a liar. Wielding his office for personal gain after his complete dereliction of duty allowing Trump to rise from the ashes.
hot take: i dont think presidents should have any “pardon” powers, bar none. what in the schoolyard playground rules kinda shit is that? lmao…. a literal get out of jail free card, how is that remotely reasonable and legally justifiable concept?
With that said, as long as the rule in place, Biden did nothing wrong.
As a father: 1000 percent i would do the same
But why would he say he wouldn’t repeatedly, and then do it? If he had started out with “ya gawdamn right im gonna pardon my son” no one, or fewer people would have a problem with this.
Notice: i didnt mention trump. Fuck trump
I’ve been downvoted before and I fully expect to be downvoted again, but no, he was in the wrong.
What this article says is what I’ve heard a lot of people say – that Democrats need to “stop playing by the rules.” It doesn’t actually say what the hell that means. I frankly don’t care about the strategy Democrats take to win 2026 so long as it’s legal and promotes the lower and middle classes, but I have a very hard time believing that opening the party to accusations of nepotism plays into any such strategy.
We live in singular times – when the gentlemen’s agreements that have allowed for the peaceful transition of power are despised.
Singular times call for singular actions – If MAGA folk want to criticize this pardon and have me think of them as anything but gullible, they must explain why they weren’t upset when Trump pardoned his father-in-law of many of the same crimes, his co-conspirators for committing unlawful acts on his behalf, and all those who appear to have paid for pardons.
Otherwise, they can rage into an uncaring void.
The asskissery for politicians who don’t give two shits is amazing. Idk who this is helping. I know it’s not helping me. Edited a word
No, I don’t think he was. But I’m also tired of Dems playing by the rules when GOP isn’t. So fuck it. Do more shit while you can, Joe.
Just, you know, maybe something that benefits the country next time.
This should be obvious because Biden’s son didn’t hold a political office. Yet the other party talked about him non-stop.
My belief, is they did that entirely to get Jared Kushner out of the news, who was in Trump’s cabinet and accepted 2 billion dollars from Saudi Arabia shortly after leaving office.
So they try to smear Hunter Biden. Don’t get me wrong, if he committed intentional and horrible crimes, then he deserves to be punished. But they took random info about his laptop as if it was Hillary and her emails.
Hunter Biden will expectantly pay his incorrect taxes back, making good on that. And my understanding is the gun charge is that he had one in his possession for 11 days, which he wasn’t supposed to have since he had a history of drug abuse.
He didn’t sell out his government position committing treason against the United States. The GOP mostly just used him because of his last name, and to rile up their base in the same way they did Hillary.
They also worked hard to make Biden and his family sound crazy, because they had just spent the previous four years reporting on Trump. They didn’t want a more sane White House. They wanted clicks and if it wasn’t for the media Trump wouldn’t be elected back into office now.
“It’s not happening”
“Ok maybe it’s happening”
“IT IS happening – and here’s why that’s a good thing”
As a parent, I would have done the same. It’s easy to piss and moan about the need to send someone else’s son to jail. But how many of us really would send our own kids to jail over charges that never would have been perused so vigorously without politics. 99 out of 100 times they would have cut a deal.
No it is wrong. A bad republican party is not an excuse for democrats to do bad things.
Because Biden knows how dictatorship works – it’s that simple
Legal Eagle disagrees.
When are we going to make it illegal for powerful people to get special treatment when your dumb ass would be locked up years ago
Politically, this has been literally the only thing that’s made sense this year
Can I be honest?
Idgaf about Hunter one way or the other. He was unfairly prosecuted, absolutely. Trump would love to make a target out of him, absolutely. That would absolutely be wrong, yes.
He’s one fucking person. I didn’t vote for Joe Biden because he said he was goi g to pardon his son before he did anything else. I didn’t vote for him to stay in a second campaign way fucking longer than anyone actually supported.
I voted for him primarily because he was going to be better than trump, which he was. I was mostly pleasantly surprised with how much I liked him, but this year has been more than enough to tank any legacy he created.
Do something for the fucking people joe. Idgaf about your kid. There’s what, 334.9 million people, minus anyone who has the surname of Biden, who do not fucking care about Hunter he is a non issue.
I wouldn’t say he was right, but it is understandable.
What’s wrong is that he lied to the American people that he wouldn’t pardon him, when he could’ve said from the beginning that he’s his father and he will do everything in his power to protect his son. Completely reasonable behavior that doesn’t make a fool of the American people.
Also people who say this makes Trump have an easier time pardoning people, he’ll be the president in his final term, he can wield those powers any way he sees fit within the guidelines. Like him or hate him, he was democratically elected, and although he can be criticized and his legacy ruined – nothing Biden does will change his actions.
The real question is whether the pardon covering such a long period means there was corruption which Biden profited from. If so, it’s like the Watergate scandal only worse. But regardless of if he’d be punished for it, as the current democratically elected president he reserves the right to pardon his son.
Why are we comparing the best of the worst?
How about we hold EVERYONE accountable ALWAYS‽
I actually applaud him for playing like the Republicans do for once.
Take full advantage of the system just like Trump will every day for the next four years!
all the politicians are corrupt
Okay, law should be applied equally, no one’s is above…blah, blah, blah. But every single person ever pardoned, by every single President in our nations entire fucking history, was convicted of a crime, and had it absolved by a pardon. That’s 143 for Trump, 212 for Obama, 189 for W, 396 for Clinton,393 for Reagan, or a whopping 960 for LBJ. HUNTER is the one your panties are in a twist about? What kind of ass-hats are you?
The Democratic Party lays down for Republicans all the time and has for years. I love Michelle Obama, but the going high shit doesn’t win elections and winning elections, in this age, quite literally saves lives.
Joe Biden has eaten shit, absolute shit, for this country and protecting his son from a grifting sociopath, who has clearly stated his intentions to persecute his enemies, is what Biden should be doing.
Being the bigger person sometimes doesn’t cut it. Joe has been that person more often than not. I’m happy to give him a pass on this one.
Let’s be real. Every single person in America would do the same thing in his situation. It’s not like he is pardoning a serial killer or Osama bin Laden..
Is everyone that loves bidens son pardon willing to say they’d support Trump pardoning his son?
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