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?
Good decision. Trump and his gang promised all kinds of revenge. They don’t play by the rules. So it makes sense to do whatever for your last son.
If we’re going to start abusing presidential power preemptively, can we get some sort of executive protections for trans rights or waiving student loans? Things that’ll help someone other than the addict failson?
Trump would just cancel them all. Day one like he did last time.
Canceling student loans would be hard to undo though. If we’re shutting down the Department of education anyway… who’s keeping track?
Agreed. If Hunter Biden’s issues hadn’t been politically weaponized so much, I doubt Biden would have done it, but the truth is, with Trump coming in to office and threatening retaliation, it makes sense to pardon him.
The crimes Hunter was charged with are rarely enforced and rarely involve jail time. The Republican’s made this a political circus that would have certainly had Hunter doing time. If it wasn’t for that, Joe would not have needed to pardon him.
I think the issue a lot of us have with this is less that he’s stooping to Trump’s level, and more that he’s only doing it to help his own family. Abusing the office of the president is apparently fine and good if its done on behalf of someone who’s name is Biden, but the rest of the planet can get fucked.
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.
I mostly agree. This is abuse of Presidential power so it is hypocritical for liberals to deny that… But, at the same time, if I were in Biden’s situation I would likely do the same. And here is why:
It is his son. His last son. Of course any loving father will do whatever they can to protect their son.
Why should Democrats care what Republicans think? Democrats are getting curb stomped by fascists who give zero shit about the integrity of our institutions or abuse of political power. They truly don’t. People voted for a pedophile felon traitorous oligarch. If you agree to an honorable sparring match of fisty-cuffs and your opponent pulls out a glock and shoots you in the knees and the crowd cheers for the cheater, do you have any moral or pragmatic reason to keep playing by the rules? No.
I mean… there’s another read on this whole thing, too: “huh, I guess everyone voted for nepotism and insider deals, so why the fuck not, especially in this context?”
Biden’s just giving the electorate a preview of what they voted for.
I would hope those that oppose Trump do not just adopt all his behaviors.
I mean I fucking hate Biden’s guts but it literally makes no sense to leave his son at the victim of Trump. Whatever Hunter was getting was never going to be justice either way.
Didn’t the Justice Department originally decide not to pursue charges until Republicans threw a fit? Seems like it was already a politically motivated prosecution, so I have no issues with a political pardon.
This shows that none of the 2 parties believe that the democratic system in the USA works anymore.
Which means, it’s dead now.
Biden winning in 2020 gave us hope that people were realizing that fascists are full of shit and that they lie about everything, but Trump winning last month has shattered any faith or hope I had left in our two party system. It is hard to believe in a system when people are relentlessly assaulted with right wing propaganda year after year and then ultimately vote for a convicted felon pedo traitorous oligarch who denies climate science.
Yes, it is. So the Democrats, and anyone else who wants to try and resurrect it, need to get off their asses and start fighting dirty to rebuild it. The Republicans have been fighting to tear it down for more than 40 years using endless dirty tricks. Time to fight fire with fire. We cannot save democracy with sternly worded letters.
It’s been dead for a little bit
Fight fire with fire, if you keep going high the other party will realize it means they can go low and you’ll never do anything about it.
I hate this approach and would rather lose. The high road is the only road. I take it not because it is easy, but because it is worthwhile.
Have fun being oppressed then