President Biden Sparks Bipartisan Outrage by Pardoning Hunter
After promising he wouldn’t pardon his son, the president seems to have changed his tune.
President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon the crimes of his son, Hunter Biden, sent shockwaves through the political world. The sweeping clemency covering all potential federal offenses Hunter committed between 2014 and 2024 is one of the broadest in modern history, drawing comparisons to Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon.
The scope of the pardon insulates Hunter Biden from any federal charges, including lying about his drug addiction on mandatory paperwork to purchase a gun, illegally possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine, and two tax misdemeanors for failing to pay over $1.4 million in taxes on time. His upcoming trial in California would have addressed nine additional federal tax charges related to his finances and lifestyle during the past decade.
Even some Democrats have slammed the president over this move. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) said the pardon “further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan went off on the president, remarking that he “no longer has any f's to give” on escalating the Ukraine war, opening the southern border, and about “issuing a pardon he promised, over and over and over, he'd never issue.”
The pardon was designed not only to protect Hunter but to preempt future investigations by the incoming Trump administration, which has vowed to probe the Biden family. President Biden defended the pardon by claiming his son was “singled out” for political reasons, though he and the White House repeatedly and emphatically assured the public that he would not pardon Hunter.
The move by President Biden also now makes it more likely for Donald Trump to exonerate Jan. 6 defendants, since Biden now set the precedent for handing out controversial pardons. Trump even alluded to this, saying, “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
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