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?
Should be illegal to pardon family members honestly. If there was ever an easy example of a conflict of interest, this is one.
You mean like Ivanka’s father-in-law who Trump pardoned and named ambassador to France?
For Biden, it was the most difficult decision of his presidency. For Trump, it was Tuesday.
Yep, absolutely. Presidential powers should be used for the good of the country, not the good of your friends and family. There are many legitimate reasons to pardon people but them being related to you is not one of them.
A fair point but do you think Hunter would have been prosecuted to the same extent if he hadn’t been related to Joe Biden?
However, it may work out better in the end for him that they went after him for ALL the crimes, because now he’s pardoned for all of them and can’t be tried for them again. We know Trump wants to go after Joe, but he’ll have to come from a different direction.
If he hadn’t been related to Joe Biden he wouldn’t have had the lifetime of cushy boardroom and lobbyist jobs to lead to being persecuted.
So regular folks don’t get prosecuted for lying when purchasing a firearm?
Oh no, the millionaire was prosecuted for breaking the law.
Oh and don’t forget the unpaid taxes they were after him for as well.
Why is everyone so mean to the millionaire presidents son, he has it rough.
You missed the point…
That I should feel bad that the millionaire son of a president was targeted for breaking the law?
No, I didn’t miss it. It’s a pointless point.
You’re not going to solve nepotism by showing a picture of Hunter’s dong in Congress.
He was being persecuted and still is by the GOP (Gray Old Pedophiles)
For the good of the country? This was literally always just a judgement call. “I think they deserve a pardon” is the only criteria there ever was. I’m sure there are examples you could claim were good for the country somehow, but I’m not sure how common that is
Exactly.
You mean like how Trump is about to pardon himself?
So what? Maybe it should be but it isn’t. The Constitution places virtually no limitation on the Presidents ability to offer clemency and no one in the last 250 years or so has seen fit to amend the constitution to change that despite the fact that the Republicans have been abusing the power of the pardon since at least the Reagan years. Now you are complaining because a Democratic President has used it *appropriately *to pardon someone who was convicted in a politically motivated circus?
If this was a thread the last time the power was used to pardon friends or family I would be saying the same thing. This instance is not special because of the person who is in office. All instances have been wrong, unless there’s a real justification beyond a personal connection.
Dumpy may be expected to do shitty things in service to himself, his family and his associates but that doesn’t make it right. I believe rules and laws should apply to everybody, not just because they are on one party or another or believe one way or another or are of one socioeconomic status or another.
What’s your point? If you break the law, you should be treated like everybody else, not pardoned by the president. It’s a bullshit ability that should be taken away from the president.
That is exactly my point. Others who have committed the same crimes are treated with a slap on the wrist. Republicans, in Hunter’s case, were insisting on heavy handed prosecution and were pushing very hard for a jail sentence. He deserved a pardon exactly because he was not being treated like everybody else.
I’d say make it illegal to pardon people who committed crimes to protect you (Ollie North, half Trump’s advisors) first.
Too bad the judges that would decide that are bought and paid for
With how lawmaking works I would say do both at the same time. It would take a constitutional amendment so it’s unlikely to ever happen unfortunately.