Was it a loving act of mercy by a father who had already known so much grief? Or is it a hypocritical political maneuver reminiscent of his great enemy? Perhaps both could be true.
Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would pardon his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing in two criminal cases, was likely the product of a Shakespearean conflict between head and heart.
On the one hand, Biden is one of the last great institutionalists in Washington. “From the day I took office, I have said that I would not interfere in the decisions of the Department of Justice,” he said in an unusually candid and personal statement Sunday. Undermining the separation of powers goes against every part of his political being.
Biden, on the other hand, can’t do anything without his family. His speech is littered with references to his parents. As a senator, he once rode the train from Washington to Wilmington, Delaware, blowing out the candles on his 8-year-old daughter Ashley’s birthday cake at the station, then crossing the platform to catch the next stop. I was able to do that. I’m going back to work by train.
Biden was deeply shaped by the car accident deaths of his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, and much later by the death of his son, Beau, from brain cancer. In that context, Hunter’s position as the first child of a sitting president to face criminal charges would have placed his father in what Ernest Hemingway called “a broken place.”
Hunter was convicted this summer of lying about his drug use when purchasing a gun. Joe Biden flatly ruled out pardoning or commuting his son’s sentence, telling reporters: I do and I won’t forgive him. ” Mr. Hunter also pleaded guilty in a separate tax evasion case, and was scheduled to be sentenced in both cases later this month.
Biden reportedly agonized for months about what to do. Donald Trump’s victory in last month’s presidential election almost certainly tipped the scales. Leaving Mr. Hunter at the mercy of President Trump’s reliably politicized and retribution-driven Justice Department was intolerable. Biden typically receives advice from close family members, and his decision likely came after an intimate Thanksgiving weekend discussion.
“No reasonable person considering the facts of Mr. Hunter’s case could come to any other conclusion than that Mr. Hunter was chosen solely because he is my son, and that is wrong,” the president said in a statement. He called this a “miscarriage of justice.” .
He added: “Efforts have been made to break Hunter, who has been sober for five and a half years, even in the face of relentless attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they are trying to break me too. I did–and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
Joe Biden’s defenders will argue that if Hunter had been a normal citizen, the gun incident wouldn’t have gotten to this point and that his father was simply righting that wrong. Republicans spent years touting the investigation into Hunter, but they never found any evidence linking his father to corruption.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder wrote on social media that U.S. attorneys “will not prosecute this case given the underlying facts.” After five years of research, the findings have only made that clearer. If his name had been Joe Smith, the solution would have been radically, and more equitably, to decline. Pardon is guaranteed. ”
It was also pointed out that this is not the first time that an amnesty has involved nepotism. President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother on old cocaine charges, and President Trump pardoned his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father for tax evasion and retaliation against a cooperating witness. The man had already served time in prison. Prison sentence. Trump also used his first term in office to pardon thugs like Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone.
But for many Americans, there will be something off-putting about the double standard of a president pardoning a member of his own family ahead of many other worthy lawsuits. House Republicans, unsurprisingly, attacked the “Biden crime family” with even more hyperbole.
But there were also more thoughtful objections. Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis said on social media, “As a father, I certainly understand President Joe Biden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, but I understand that he cares more about his family than his country.” I’m disappointed that they prioritized this.” This is a bad precedent that could be exploited by future presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. ”
“Joe Biden lied repeatedly because he repeatedly said he wouldn’t do this,” former Republican lawmaker and Trump critic Joe Walsh said on the MSNBC network. That cynicism strengthens Trump because he can say, “I’m not a unique threat.” Everyone does this. If I would do something for my kids or my son-in-law or whatever, Joe Biden would do the same thing. ” That is understandable, but this was a self-serving move by Biden that only strengthened Trump politically. It’s just deflated. ”
In this moral maze, it is impossible to ignore Trump’s context. Next month, he will become the first convicted felon to be sworn in as president, but the three cases against him have all but disappeared. He has already moved to appoint allies to the FBI and Justice Department.
Michelle Obama once advised that when they go low, we go high. On Sunday, Joe Biden, 82 and heading for the exit with little to lose, decided to play low. That’s probably what any parent would do.
