I had to laugh:
“I recommend reading his résumé. ‘Juicy’ as the Americans would say . . . Needless to say, he has no knowledge of our country. At least he will have access to the president. We console ourselves as best we can,” former French ambassador to the US Gérard Araud
you can practically hear the shrug
You gotta love a nice French Diss
With regards to the pardon, I don’t see how this is supposed to be so out of character for Biden. He’s always made it clear how important family is to him, and if it had been a president like Bush succeeding him, I don’t think this happens.
And, given the history of presidential pardons over the last 100 years or so, I’m really struggling to see how this equates in people’s eyes as ‘bad’ as those…
If you place yourself in Biden’s shoes, what would you do?
Throw your son to the wolves? Knowing full well the political and judicial structures you have depended on your whole life cannot be relied on any more under the new Trump reality?
Or would you use your last vestiges of power to pardon your son to spare him?
For the second option you know you will be severely criticized, and you know that people will say it will undermine the very political and judicial structures you say you have depended on, but what if you think those structures have already been dismantled, and there’s no hope?
And so at that point, would you stand on your principles, knowing they are being trampled under the new order, or would you pardon your son?
I don’t like what Biden did, but I understand it.
All good Magnus. I dont disagree with you here. The point I was trying to make is that Trump would pardon anyone and everyone no matter what Biden did. He’d just do it anyway, this changes nothing.
Difference i guess is they can justify it, but that really never mattered to them either.
Sad and very worrying times to be honest
He has already, and made giving blanket pardons for anyone involved in Jan6th part of his platform .
Presidential pardons have become a tradition of scandal for the leaving president on their way out of office. Trump’s, unsurprisingly, took that to new levels. This is not a call to whataboutism to argue against criticism of what Biden has done, but a rejection of the “but wont someone think of the norms” and “oh, that has opened the door for Trump” discourse. That part of the discussion ignores history.
As has already been stated, Trump’s cronies are now coming into office with a promise to charge Hunter with crimes related to that 2014 Burisma era that they have been publicly accusing him of since 2018. This despite those accusation having already been investigated as part of this extensive Weiss SC investigation and found to be baseless (which is not surprising considering the accusations are based on turning the details of the case 180 degrees from reality). MAGA leaders simply refuse to accept that outcome and few serious people doubt that with the people who will be leading that they reopen that investigation and simply create a way to bring additional charges. These people view Lavrentiy Beria as a figure to follow.
Trump creates awful lose-lose situations for anyone who has to share an arena with him. This is unfortunately one of those times. That does not preclude criticism for taking this specific losing decision, but consideration has to be given to what the losing outcome is from taking the other path.
I realise, but I don’t agree and I am very critical of his broken promises regarding not pardoning his son. I just find it too unacceptable.
I don’t really like the excuses people raise here, if I am honest, but i respect everyone’s opinion here. But of course I understand why he is doing it, but I am incredibly critical of it myself (not exactly the same, I confess, but I understand why Putin wants to go into the history books as Peter the Great and reclaim the Russian imperial hinterland as well, as an example, although maybe not the best one). I would not have been so critical had Biden’s pardon been more specific and not a blanket pardon, which just isn’t right. It would have been bad then as well, but not half as bad and easier to respect and understand. I just cannot stomach it, I just cannot. It is just me. I am a bit unflinching in such matters, I suppose.
I just prefer not to debate this more myself. For now, anyway. Maybe in a few weeks 
That having been said, I would of course still vote for him or a lettuce over GOP if I were American 
I would have not pardoned my own son. Biden didn’t throw Hunter to the wolves. Hunter did it to himself. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers for actions (taxes and guns) which have resulted in the imprisonment of many far less privileged than him.
It’s not even an issue in my mind.
That ignores that the crimes (from this period) don’t exist and the accusations are based on completely made up stories. There are no actual crimes he can use specific language to cover. If Biden is going to take the reputational and political hit to do this the only way to actually protect Hunter is with a blanket pardon.
I get that it is ugly. I get that people feel angry about the high-minded way they spoke about not even considering doing this whenever they were asked prior to the election only to now do it. But the alternative of doing nothing is kind of unthinkable under the circumstances.
Just to be clear to finish this discussion on my own part:
I agree, respect and understand, that if Hunter Biden had been charged for various offenses and times had been different and a vengeful corrupt devil was not on his way into the White House, I too think that Joe Biden would not have issued this kind of pardon. I realise that times are not normal and that the climate is very bad 
But even so.
I don’t like what Biden did, but I understand it.
If the GOP wishes to tighten up gun control laws, bring it on. There are several things that have wide, cross-party agreement that are not being addressed because the gun lobby rules the roost.
They care in this instance because it hurts Joe Biden.
Hmmm. It’s definitely in character with his lying in the past. Why do you assume he would have acted differently in a Bush administration? What gives you reason to trust him?
I’m not sure I follow. So because we don’t have sufficient, if any, gun control, Biden can ignore the existing laws?
I think of all the various ways Biden has destroyed his own reputation, this will not even be a footnote.
He was a president who has brought about incredibly pro-consumer protections with his FTC that had the potential is allowed to continue to meaningfully alter the relationship between corporations and consumers/workers. When that was coupled with his domestic legislative record people were arguing 2 years ago it could put him in line to be a transformational president with a positive legacy close to FDR. But the benefits required time to bed in. For society to benefit from any of it it was essential Democrats kept the white house. Biden, through a variety of choices, especially but limited to his decision to try to run again, made that ultimately impossible. None of the lasting benefits from his wins will now come to fruition, meaning that he wont even get a Carter style reevaluation in 20 years time. Add in his Israel policy of the past 12 months and he will go down as one of the worst we’ve had. And it could have all been so different had he not read Pro Biden messages that werent there into the 2022 midterms.
Don’t know the history of Presidential pardons at all but Trump has already turned it into an art form and has made it clear he going to be doing some wholesale pardoning of his mates after Jan.20th.
The whole thing looks weird but Biden pardoning his son is probably understandable as there is little doubt that, vindictive prick that he is,Trump would seek to throw away the key in Hunter 's case.
That is probably enough justification in the Biden case.
I agee with this. It’s actually why I think Biden would have pardoned his son under any presidency. That’s just a personal assessment of his character, with much of it having been on display for us to see.
I’ve seen nothing from this man to think otherwise. Again, just personal opinion that keeps me from giving him the benefit of the doubt.
He is saying that the gun charges are already ones that are not commonly charged and incredibly rarely result in jail time, and would never be under the gun laws the GOP advocate for. Yet they uniformly advocate for jailing him over them now.
Again, this not meant as whataboutism, but context of how vindictive and political an investigation it was by Weiss that there are even things for Biden to pardon.
