The Daily Populous Saturday December 7th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by thenation.com and submitted by Healthy_Block3036

Politics / Of Course Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son OF COURSE Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son People need to stop asking Democrats to play by different rules than Republicans, and they need to stop asking Biden to be a worse father than any of us would be in his place.

President Joe Biden walks out of Nantucket Bookworks with son Hunter Biden, grandson Beau and daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen Biden in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on November 29, 2024.

Ido not believe I have read a worse collection of takes in the weeks since Donald Trump’s reelection than the endless array of white columnists and pundits whining about Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter Biden. The idea that the “rule of law” is somehow undermined—in this lunatic country that just elected a convicted felon who has promised to prosecute his political enemies—by this ordinary use of the extraordinary presidential pardon power, is simply nuts.

And yet, the brigade of institutionalists who have watched with ineffectual shrillness as Trump continues to take a sledgehammer to the very idea of government have gotten deep in their feelings over Biden’s pardon. Here’s the headline from The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner:

Biden’s Pardon of Hunter Further Undermines His Legacy

By granting clemency to his son, the President put his family above the American people.

And here’s what the usually clear-headed Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic:

The Hunter Biden Pardon Is a Strategic Mistake

The blunder will haunt Democrats during the next Trump administration.

The premise of both of these pieces, and the many, many others like them, is that pardoning one’s own family is inherently corrupt. More importantly, Biden’s detractors argue that his use of the pardon for Hunter somehow cedes the mythical “high ground” to Trump and clears the way for him to pardon the January 6 terrorists.

Fundamentally, these pundits are committing the same mistake that has plagued American media for at least a decade: demanding that Democrats play by a set of rules that Republicans have long rejected. And I am tired of it. I will no longer participate in the masturbatory Kabuki theater of pretending there is some objective set of standards and norms that some political actors must play by while others are free to ignore them.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there are no “rules”—certainly not anymore. There is just power. Right now, Biden has it, and he used it. Would that he had used it a little more often during the last four years, instead of spending most of that time trying to “restore” standards and norms that Trump destroyed.

Trump will have all the power soon, and we don’t have to guess how he’ll use the pardon power, because he’s already used it for his own, corrupt ends. You know what’s “worse” and more corrupt than pardoning your family members? Pardoning your criminal coconspirators. That’s what Trump did. Here is the list of Trump’s pardons from his first term. It includes his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who lied for Trump to the FBI; former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who lied for Trump to the Robert Mueller investigation; lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan, who lied to Mueller; dirty trickster Roger Stone, who literally tampered with witnesses; and Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was engaged in an international conspiracy to obstruct justice and commit tax fraud.

Oh, I’m not done. You want some family pardons? How about when Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, father of his daughter’s husband, who had been convicted on 16 counts of fraud and false statements and retaliating against witnesses? (Trump just picked Kushner to be his ambassador to France, by the way.)

And we all know that Trump would have pardoned his children without a moment’s hesitation had any of them actually been prosecuted for crimes. But Bob Mueller, playing by that old rulebook, refused to do so, and Merrick Garland chose to hide under his desk for four years rather than do his job, so Trump never got the chance.

Again, those are just some of the people Trump has already pardoned. But the institutionalists want to tell me that now he will be “unrestrained” in his use of the pardon power because Biden pardoned his own son? Or that he was somehow afraid of pardoning January 6 insurrectionists before all of this? Does anyone actually believe that?

Trump is going to do what he is going to do—there is no institutional convention that is going to stop him, and the sooner people get that through their thick skulls the better the level of discourse will be in this stupid country. The problem I’m supposed to care about is that Democrats have abandoned some ephemeral high ground that would have allowed them to object to Trump’s pardons of terrorists. Who are these people who think that bitching from a slightly elevated position is more effective at restraining raw political and military power? Do they also think there are magical bears out there who shit rainbows and that we can overcome authoritarian regimes with the power of friendship?

If institutionalists would really like to have an institutional solution to the problem, I have one: The pardon power is anachronistic bullshit and should be stricken from the Constitution.

Speaking as a person who has a passable understanding of how a legal system based on equality under the law and due process (which is not at all the kind of legal system we have in this country) could be made to work, it is simply antithetical to the principles of the rule of law to have one person who can short-circuit the entire justice system on a whim and a signature. Presidents (and governors) should not have the power to overturn convictions based on their feelings. If the justice system gets it wrong (as it does all the time), there should be a process freely and equally available to all to reverse convictions, without needing to have special access to the thought bubbles of the most powerful political figure in the land. To the extent that the system isn’t good enough, it should be made better. Maybe we should do something useful like federally funding the Innocence Project, while also getting rid of the pardon power?

If the institutionalists would like to start a movement to amend the Constitution and remove the presidential pardon power, I’ll be right there with them. If instead they just want to complain when a Democrat uses their power maximally while Republicans use the fullest extent of their powers all the goddamn time, they can entirely miss me with that self-defeating argument.

Of course, Biden is not really using his pardon power “maximally,” and that is the basis for criticism from the left. They argue that Biden should be granting pardons much more widely as a way of helping some of the millions of people who have been wronged by our criminal justice system but don’t have the advantage of sharing the president’s DNA.

I’m sympathetic to that argument, but more than Biden using his pardon power to give boons and prizes to those he deems worthy, I’d rather he had used the executive branch of government, in consultation with the legislative branch, to actually reform the criminal justice system that does so much harm. But Biden didn’t do that. Congress, during the brief two years Democrats controlled both chambers, didn’t do that. Asking Biden to reform the criminal justice system through the use of his pardon power, when he failed to reform it through the use of all of his other presidential powers, seems weird and unhelpful.

Biden is not a criminal justice reformer, and he never has been. This is the guy who wrote the notorious 1994 crime bill and shouted, “Fund the police!” at his State of the Union address, after all. Something Biden has always been, though, is a loving father. Even if you think Biden debased his office by pardoning his son, I do not know any parents who wouldn’t do exactly the same thing. That’s even truer in this situation, where Hunter Biden was only being prosecuted and harassed because he is the son of a president. If my kid were being prosecuted because of my job, and I could make it stop, I’d do it faster than Eddard Stark publicly proclaiming Joffrey Lanni-err-Baratheon to be the true Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.

People need to stop asking Democrats to play by different rules than Republicans, and they for sure need to stop asking Biden to be a worse father than any of us would be in his situation.

This is a good pardon. Trump’s pardons were bad and will be again. If you can’t spot the difference between pardoning your son who was persecuted because of your job versus pardoning your criminal coconspirators or pardoning terrorists who attacked the Capitol at your request, you should take your head out of your ass.

PadreSJ on December 6th, 2024 at 21:41 UTC »

We live in singular times - when the gentlemen's agreements that have allowed for the peaceful transition of power are despised.

Singular times call for singular actions - If MAGA folk want to criticize this pardon and have me think of them as anything but gullible, they must explain why they weren't upset when Trump pardoned his father-in-law of many of the same crimes, his co-conspirators for committing unlawful acts on his behalf, and all those who appear to have paid for pardons.

Otherwise, they can rage into an uncaring void.

flyover_liberal on December 6th, 2024 at 21:28 UTC »

Meanwhile, Roger Stone didn't get prosecuted for a lot bigger back tax issue than Hunter Biden had.

Choice-of-SteinsGate on December 6th, 2024 at 21:18 UTC »

What's unnerving is that Trump and his supporters claim that this warrants even broader immunities for Trump.

Hunter Biden was excoriated and dragged through the mud for 5 years as the target of relentless partisan inquiries and investigations, media smear campaigns, political scrutiny, public harassment, which all amounted to a waste of time, because in the end, He was prosecuted for a crime the tens of thousands of Americans get away with every year. If Trump were prosecuted for lying on a gun form, his supporters would be having a collective conniption fit.

Even most authorities on the matter have called the prosecution highly unusual due to how infrequently it is prosecuted in the first place, let alone including the involvement of Congressional committees, special counsels, and the DOJ.

And in regards to the tax evasion, we all know where Trump and his followers stand on that, considering Trump has made a career out of avoiding paying taxes after amassing unsustainable debts. While mind you, Hunter paid back his tax bill. Another case that prosecutors found highly unusual because of how difficult it is to convince a jury to convict someone of not paying their taxes, even though they've paid their taxes...

Joe Biden's decision also protects his son from future punitive efforts and political scrutiny from a Republican party that has consolidated power and intends to abuse it.

There is a massive difference between targeting the president's son in such a brazen manner and investigating a series of crimes committed by a former president and now president elect, who is a serial fraud and known notoriously for his criminal misconduct and abuse of the justice system. And crimes that are all far more grievous and damning than anything Republicans could even fantasize about implicating Hunter Biden for.

Not only that, but by comparison, Trump has committed more crimes and subsequent investigations were backed by clearer and more incriminating evidence.

Critics argue that if Hunter wasn't the president's son, then he wouldn't be receiving such preferential treatment, but you've got that backwards. If it were not for his social status, he would have likely never been prosecuted in the first place.

This is not just a flagrant false equivalence, but also a double standard.

If you compare the situations of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump side by side, you should be able to conclude that the differences are extensive. Thinking that Hunter's pardon justifies even more immunities for Trump is absurd.

Hell, prior to this pardon, I wasn't trying to justify it by pointing to the rampant cronyism and favoritism that Trump legitimized after he pardoned several corrupt allies and co-conspirators, some of which he's welcomed back into his inner circle.

Additionally, Hunter isn't being offered a pardon/impunity as a former president, nor as a president elect who can now feel exempt from the law and more comfortable knowing that he will likely not be held accountable for any future corruption and misconduct.

Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice"

But Trump uses this exact same language to describe the countless indictments, investigations, and lawsuits against him. All of which were warranted to some degree.

Donald Trump has not only been exploiting his wealth, power, and privilege to game the justice system throughout his entire life, while evading accountability for his crimes and misconduct, but even as president, he used his executive privilege to avoid being incriminated for his blatant and frequent attempts to obstruct justice.

Since then, he has been granted broad immunities by a kowtowing group of loyalists, immunities and privileges he has used to obstruct and delay the legal process.

Trump has also made a number of unconstitutional threats against his political opponents and adversaries, warning them that he intends to abuse his power as president to seek retribution against them.

This is a man who has been involved in over 4,000 legal cases as well, many of which illustrate his penchant for fraud, coercion, elusiveness and corruption.

Trump has literally been charged with "defrauding the United States," with conspiring to overturn an election, with disenfranchising tens of millions of Americans, with intimidating election officials into manipulating the vote for him, with attempting to install loyalists into positions of power within agencies like the DOJ, where they can help him steal the election. All of which Trump has been able to avoid convictions for due to his recent election win and his exploitation of the justice system. By contrast, Hunter was charged and actually convicted of lying on a gun form... He was also charged for not paying his taxes, while prosecutors thought it would be difficult to convict someone for tax evasion after they've already paid their taxes back.

Trump has established himself as an infamous and serial cheater. He cheats on his wives, he cheats on his taxes, he lies about his wealth and the value of his properties, he even cheats at golf...

And despite all this, when Joe Biden offers his son a pardon, after he was maligned for years, humiliated and scandalized, investigated by Congress, special counsel, and by the DOJ... after he became the target of relentless partisan inquiries and committee hearings, after the public harassment, the political scrutiny, the Media smear campaigns, all of which amounted to a waste of time, but eventually ended in him being prosecuted for a crime that most Americans get away with every year, a prosecution that even authorities on the matter have called highly unusual, after all of this, Donald Trump should be granted yet another immunity claim? Should be held to an even lower standard? Face less accountability?

This is just like what happened during Harris's campaign. Because Donald Trump is a notorious and serial shitstirrer, because his absurdity has magically rendered him benign, because corruption, malfeasance, cronyism, obstruction of justice, the endless incoherent ramblings and emotional tirades at rallies, public events, during interviews, press conferences, via TruthSocial, etc, because his violent rhetoric and unconstitutional threats are just another day for Donald Trump, we've practically sane washed and normalized his misconduct.

So the bar for Trump remains perpetually low, while his opponents are held to such a high standard that they're expected to be irreproachable by comparison.