President Joe Biden has broken his word by pardoning his son and may have tainted the Democratic Party for years to come in the process.
Biden and his aides repeatedly stated that he would not pardon Hunter Biden, even getting testy with reporters who asked about it, before issuing a sweeping pardon once the 2024 presidential election was over.
Democrats fear it will damage not only Biden’s legacy but their own credibility going forward.
“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) posted on X. “Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”
While Polis didn’t say which later presidents he was referring to, Democrats are worried the pardon will undercut complaints about actions President-elect Donald Trump takes once he enters the White House early next year.
Biden has made a habit of using the phrase “my word as a Biden” to tout his own integrity, but with that word now broken in such a public way, partisans on his side of the aisle worry it will give cover to Trump.
“My guess is that Trump will probably pardon some of, maybe all of the Jan. 6 terrorists,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said. “And it’s certainly going to be harder now for Democrats to complain that those people should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Bannon added that he was not surprised to see some elected Democrats distancing themselves from Biden.
“It hurts the president’s legacy, and it’s bad politics for Democrats,” Bannon said.
Biden repeatedly claimed that he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence and dispatched his deputies, especially White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, to make that claim on his behalf.
Jean-Pierre got into more than one verbal scuffle with reporters over the issue, and she was sent out to defend Biden’s actions again on Monday while Biden jetted off to Africa.
The pardon flip-flop is part of a longstanding pattern for the president, who claimed the infamous Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation only to have it proven to be legitimate, and later said he never discussed business dealings with Hunter only to have that claim proven false, too.
In total, Biden’s spokespeople insisted on 11 different occasions that he wouldn’t issue the pardon, a fact which seems to be drawing the lion’s share of criticism from both sides of the aisle.
“The real issue is that Biden repeatedly told Americans he would not pardon his son. He lied,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner. “It’s like the exclamation point at the end of the most unpopular president dating back to 1952.”
Also at issue was the scope of the pardon, which releases Hunter Biden not only from the felony gun and tax charges for which he’s been convicted but from any potential crimes he committed between 2014 and 2024, including the last three years of Joe Biden’s vice presidency. It’s one of the most sweeping presidential pardons ever given.
In doing so, Joe Biden called into question his own Department of Justice, sounding more than a little like Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the various criminal cases against him were politically motivated.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” Biden said in his official statement. “Once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.”
Biden came into office promising a return to decency and civility following the first Trump administration but is leaving on quite the opposite note by overturning convictions handed down by a jury in a court of law.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said the president is leaving behind a legacy of lies.
“President Biden and his aides just shredded any ounce of credibility they had left — which was virtually nonexistent,” Clyde told the Washington Examiner. “After years of lying about everything from inflation to the President’s health, it comes as no surprise that the White House was also lying to the American people about plans to protect Biden’s crooked son, Hunter.”
Reporters berated Jean-Pierre when she spoke to them aboard Air Force One Monday, questioning whether Biden now agrees with Trump about the DOJ and whether he really made the decision while hanging out with his son over the weekend.
“Does the president believe now, and agree with President-elect Trump, that the justice system has been weaponized for political purposes and that it needs root-and-branch reform?” a reporter asked.
Jean-Pierre responded that Biden does not, that he believes in the Department of Justice, and that he feels Hunter Biden had been unfairly singled out.
Biden has not spoken publicly about the pardon, and the White House‘s trip guidance doesn’t list any press interactions before Biden’s return to the White House on Thursday night.
Some on the Left seem to realize that the controversial pardon will complicate their case as they prepare for a battle against Trump next year. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) is another Democrat who distanced himself from Biden, writing that the outgoing president put personal interest ahead of duty and eroded faith in the justice system in the process.
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Others say Biden’s action was reasonable, and even admirable, as a parent using their powers to protect their children.
“Any father would do the same thing for their son,” said T.J. Rooney, a former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman. “If he didn’t, I’d say he was a horrible dad. I don’t think there will be any lingering stain on the party.”
