A considered view…
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Had Biden not done this, wouldn’t he have then left his son at the mercy of Trump who has wanted to get to Biden through his son for years now.
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The article reminded me that Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, who is now the nominee for Ambassador to France. I am not sure how much additional validation this pardon of Hunter Biden really provides to Trump after the election result.
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I think it is a shame that Biden pardoned his son, but it is also very understandable. The game is rotten to the core, so Biden decided to protect his son as one of his final acts as President.
It would have been quite unnecessary in a normal world, with a functioning press, an independent judicial department and a sense of perspective in politics. But all that has gone.
After watching them go after Hunter Biden - a private citizen and not a government official - for over 5 years, on trumped up everyday charges that were due to him being an addict, President Biden was moved to act to protect his son.
As a career politician who had a reputation for reaching across the aisle and working with his fellow Americans in good faith, I’m sure he is distraught at the implications of his act. It means he no longer trusts the structures of government and justice to do the right thing.
I will reflect on the fall of the Republic stuff, as it isn’t fully clear to me if America will continue to spiral down into a dark hole, or if it will recover.
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The pardon power in general is ridiculous and serious consideration needs to be given for how to reign it in to be used to better, less self serving ends. In that context this is part of a pattern of abuse that presidents have conducted that really needs to change. In general sense Biden deserves criticism. But, I just cannot take seriously the response to it I am seeing.
Even ignoring that these prosecutions were political, and Hunter has already been hung out to dry in the hope of displaying respect for process and DOJ independence, we just had an election about these very issues and the American people said things like rule of law, ethics, self dealing etc dont matter. The Trump people pretending to care dont care, and the resistance mob saying this makes hold Trump to account are not being serious either. This act is meaningfully different, less consequential and less corrupt than anything that the complaints about Trump relates to. Don’t buy MAGA’s framing of pretending you can no longer criticize them for bad things when “your side” does stuff they only pretend to believe are similar.
I think the people arguing this has ramifications for politics and the enablement of more bad things from Trump et al are just participating in political Keyfabe. We are capable of drawing distinctions between things that are different in scope, magnitude, and type. They dont need excuses to do the corrupt things they were always going to do. Nor do they need ammo to justify what they are already preparing to do because if the Dems fail to give them any they will make it up and be taken seriously by the mainstream press anyway. This act by Biden, as worthy of criticism as it is in isolation, changes nothing.
No he isnt. This exactly the sort of Keyfabe I was talking about.
He pardoned Bannon, Manafort, and Flynn, all people who acted illegally to help him get elected the first time.
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But those guys still have a seedy aura about them, White House insiders to be sure. Kushner is being sent as Ambassador to another G8 nation, and an ally.
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Oh for sure. I am just expanding on the scope of what has already happened with the pardon power that was historically corrupt and received far less criticism than this.
I get “we do bad things but they are worse” is not a great argument, but we also need to be adults and understand that politics that excuses 100% of what one side does while requiring 100% perfection from the other to allow us to pretend they are both the same is exactly the sort of nihilistic nonsense that ushers in fascism.
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I was already pretty much done , for the time being at least , with American politics. The shock of that POS being re-elected after everything said to me that the US was now a country where the law no longer really applies. I know the pardon with Biden isn’t in the same league but it does reinforce the impression of absolute rot at the heart of society.
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Ah Jenkins. I don’t need to read it to know it will probably be an extremely bad take.
Even that summary is so wrong it’s unbelievable. Where was Jenkins for 2017-2020 when Trump was breaking all those norms and abusing the Constitution anyway?
Absolutely delusional to think that anything Biden does or doesn’t do will bind Trump in any way.
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There is the additional consideration that what Hunter has been charged with are trivial crimes (not normally charged) all unrelated to the core conspiracy MAGA have been pushing for 6 years. Weiss’ failure to find a way to not charge anything related to Ukraine did not go down well in MAGA land, with many of them still committed to the idea that they would be able to find ways to charge him with more, despite their 6 years of investigations failing to raise anything.
We know Kash et all have an enemies list and appear motivated to pursue them. You don’t have to be too conspiratorial in your thinking to think this is necessary to protect him against being further targeted just for being the son of Trump’s political opponent. Everyone in the press complaining about the pardon understands this angle, yet they refuse to acknowledge it in their coverage. No piece talking about how this opens the door for Trump to do anything should be taken seriously when the whole thing is premised on the expectation that Trump is going to appoint people with the goal of continued targeting of the family.
I get not liking it. I get feeling compelled to criticize Biden for it. But this is not happening in a vacuum. This is happening in response to how criminal and vengeful the incoming administration has shown themselves to be in the past and are promising to be moving forward.
Like look at this intellectual dishonesty…“but Biden was the pro-institutions guy and now he’s doing this because he doesnt trust institutions. What a hypcrite!”
Not trusting institutions under Trump was precisely the argument being made in the election. That is kind of the point of fascism, you fucking idiot.
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Politician in lying to the publuc shocker.
I am pretty damn disgusted by what Joe Biden recently did. It is shameful and unforgivable.
He swore not to do this. In the end, he was weak and abused his presidential power. This will further contribute to normalise such pardons. Now, it is not just Trump, not just the other party, that is stained black as sin.
Biden will be remembered for this. And he will deserve to be remembered for it.
I notice that much of the hyperpartisan press in the US, is defending this if they are pro Democrats. I have read much coverage of this from foreign press and analysts and I have seen none who defend this outside the US. Nor should anyone defend this. It is outrageous.
And even if he wanted to pardon him, he could have done this differently like many political scientists point to. What he did, was the most morally corrupt path, he pardoned everything his son could have done, from 2014, not just individual cases, which could indeed be “unfair”, as he claimed. Inexcusable. The tax evasions, we are not talking about petty sums, it is millions of dollars. Absolutely detestable and disgusting. Banana republic stuff.
Fuck this. It’s just shameful and sad.
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Completely agree. Not everything needs to be judged relatively. Some things can be judged for themselves and this one was wrong.
To be fair, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m more surprised by the extent to which people rush to defend Biden’s character just as others do Trump’s. Both can be wrong on a standalone basis, and sadly they have often been.
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There were rumours that he considered it, but I thought that he would come to the better conclusion, since he did in fact, after all, promise this.
So I am surprised.
But he will deserve most of the flak he will get for this, but many in the party will not, and they will unfortunately own this by association (unfair, but such is the way of the world). A gargantuan own goal for the Democratic Party and the United States, but in the end, the father makes his decision and no one can stop him due to the law that enables such presidential pardons. But the irrresponsibility is rather epic.
And I think that is all I want to say about this. I will have little time for the relativism-defence.
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I dont think it changes anything in that regard. That ship sailed a good while ago.
Otherwise, yeah its a stain against Biden that the Dems will have to live with. And yes the Dems need to be whiter than white.
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He promised he wouldn’t run again too 
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An 100% reprehensible act but like @Arminius said in a country that morality and ethics have lost all meaning, Biden would be an idiot for doing otherwise.
You have Trump of all people talking about abuse of power and Republicans saying that the Democrats can’t wave their finger at them anymore when they’ve done far more vile and disgusting things, and no one bats an eyelid because the American public has by and large aligned itself with Trumpism.
No matter what Biden did, he was in a lose-lose scenario.
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I don’t fully agree on the first part. It is one thing that the Republicans candidates abuse power, that is a seperate matter. When the other side does it too, all is lost in terms of arguments and it becomes a swamp where one merely debate relative awfulness; and a major propaganda victory for the other side. It will have consequences.
Before I leave, (because I don’t want to debate that GOP are relatively worse and this is not so bad etc., I don’t have time for such arguments and I am sure they will come in this thread by someone) I want to say that I do not at all, think you have to be whiter than snow to not do this. If times were relatively normal and the other side were not fully corrupt, this would have been seen as black as sin and far from grey. It is corrupt, legal yes, but it is overtly corrupt. In my view, there can be no defence (particularly since as stated, this pardon did not at all have to be so far reaching, where he is blanket pardoned for absolutely everything).
Anyway, I am not American, but it certainly makes me sigh in disappointment. The US is really not a shining beacon on the hill…
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It’s too cynical for me and I don’t accept the argument, as I view it (the act of pardoning Hunter for absolutely everything) to not only be morally corrupt, but also very political damaging (and thus incredibly irresponsible). I have an enormous degree of respect for Arminius, but I will never agree there.
Anyway. I have said what I want. Others have different opinions, it is the way of the world 
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I understand the sentiment. But if the popular vote was close, then I don’t think we can say no one bats an eyelid at Trump’s actions. And if we are resigned to the rule of law having fallen and individuals no longer being obligated to uphold it, we are basically declaring a free-for-all. That argument would be no different than the MAGA claims about politicized rulings (which are also wrong) and had serious repercussions.
Feels like it could very well happen and maybe it already has, but I think it’s early to declare that. For me, individual responsibility still matters and Biden corruptly shirked his.
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