Summary
President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, prompting strong backlash from Republicans.
GOP lawmakers criticized the move as an abuse of power and an attempt to avoid accountability, with figures like Rep. James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley calling it hypocritical and corrupt.
Biden defended the pardon, citing “selective prosecution” and claiming Hunter was unfairly targeted due to their family connection.
Hunter faced convictions for federal gun and tax charges.
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You forgot the worst one, which is “fascist wanna-be dictator.”
“Wanna-be” is no longer needed.
He is a fascist dictator.
To them : god king emperor
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That’s what dictators do.
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Prospect? Trump handed out pardons like candy to far worse people who happened to aligned with his politics. After 8 years of seeing Trump rat-fuck norms and laws and precedent and unjustly go after his family and get away with everything, while everyone else tries to play by the rules, Biden is probably asking himself why he has to let his son risk prison when he knows everyone in the incoming administration wouldn’t even give a second thought to pardoning.
I don’t support it, but I get it. This is the kind of shit America voted for, right?
Haven’t seen this linked yet so I’ll leave it here: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-joseph-biden-2021-present - (25 pardons, 26 pardons including Hunter) https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021 - (144 pardons)
(Got distracted counting Trumps pardons, may be off by a few)
Yeah the choice for President was between cop and felon. The majority polled against equal application of the rule of law. Biden is just respecting the voters’ wishes.
Prospect? Where have you been? Did you miss when Trump pardoned Jared Kushner’s father?
Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner [Jared Kushner’s father] discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.
In fact, this man who “pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering” has now been nominated to be Ambassador to France by Trump. There is no “prospect of Republicans doing the same thing in four years.” They’ve been doing it for the last 40+ years already. You just haven’t been paying attention.
It’s about time the Democrats got of their damn high horse and got down in the mud and started fighting like they mean it.
Don Jr did cocaine in public at the recent Space X launch and not a peep out of the mainstream media, much less police.
If a policeman saw a black man outside a night club do what Don Jr did, he would have been arrested on the spot and immediately thrown in jail.
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Did you forget Trump pardoning several war criminals and others in his cabinet who directly worked with foreign adverse governments?
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that the Republicans will blow it out of proportions and use it to excuse themselves for corruption and treason.
They will do this regardless of what their opponent does.
These two posts on my front page right beside each other.
Get fucked Republicans. You have no moral high ground here.
Isnr it just as much “get fucked Dems, you have no moral high ground anymore”?
No. If Harris won and he pardoned him then it would be.
So “Buh buh Biden pardon” wont be the justification for any pardon going forward?
Oh it absolutely will be, but they would have found other justifications to pardon people anyways. This gives them a convenient talking point, but they could have drawn one out of the ether anyways.
You make it sound like Republicans haven’t pardoned in the past and only now that Joe has they can justify it. That’s 100% BS.
I think you need to read more than the first five words of my comment, because that’s the exact opposite of what I said.
Yes, they are very capable of rationalizing a pardon. I’m saying “Buh Buh Biden Pardon Huuunter” is gonna be the “justification” when insanity happens.
Trump has already pardoned family multiple times… And just nominated one of those ones to be the ambassador to France 🤦♂️
People need to stop giving a shit about republican outrage. They’re outraged at everything and dint care for one second about hypocrisy
Go look at who Trump pardoned in his first term. He’s gonna do it anyway, saying it’s because of Biden is a weak ass excuse. Don’t be fooled.
I’m not remotely close to fooled. I’m simply pointing out that this will be the “justification” for pardons going forward.
I think Biden should use his pardon power for good. I don’t have a huge problem with this, but I want him to do something unexpected. Biden should pardon all the married immigrants after his program was recently shot down in court. For those that don’t know, Many immigrants are married to US citizens, but cannot achieve citizenship that you normally would be able to do. It hinges on entering the country Illegally, which requires them to leave for up to 10 years before re applying for citizenship. Biden could pardon the “crime” of illegal entry, this removing the INS statue of not allowing them citizenship.
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Everyone needs to play the same game they do.
Is it hypocritical, yeah probably, does he have any reason to answer for it? Naw
Trump just put Kusher in a role … a person he pardoned for … “preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC” per his own statement.
Right.
People voted this kind of behavior into office, repeatedly. Anyone clutching pearls right now can fuck off.
I sure as hell wouldn’t want my son at the mercy of Trumps DOJ.
Right?
Americans don’t get to complain about corruption anymore. We gleefully voted for corruption after it was shown to us in pretty much the most blatant way possible and given to us as a choice going forward.
It’s who we are now and we voted for it. Complaints will not be forwarded to management.
If you think that Trump’s DOJ is gonna respect pardons from a Democrat…
Fuck 'em. Let them fume. This is the party that wants to let the terrorists from Jan 6 off with a pardon. The party that thinks donvict can do no wrong.
I’ll bet the Jan 6 pardons are quietly forgotten. They were a bunch of useful idiots who have already played their role and can be safely disposed of.
Only exception might be anyone who could be potentially squeezed for more information that might lead to more evidence against Trump, but even that’s probably a non-issue for him.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t pardon them.
Not only does he have a history of throwing basically everyone in the universe under the bus, but it’s his second term. He doesn’t have to please anyone now.
Free pardons for joining Trump Force, the Premier Private Deportation Group.
Offer only applicable to people with violent felony convictions or Jan 6th related charges
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Exactly. Honestly all the self-flagellation, finger wagging and purity tests over this are exactly why the Democrats have lost and the Republicans took power over the entire government.
Trump gave his son-in-law’s daddy a pardon for crimes that included trying to blackmail a witness against him in a criminal case by hiring a prostitute and recording their sex.
Trump pardoned the murderers responsible for a massacre in Iraq.
Trump pardoned Manafort and Stone and others who committed crimes to get Trump into office.
The majority of Trump’s pardons were people who are personally or politically connected to him. I guarantee we’ll see far worse in Trump’s next term no matter what Biden does.
So yeah Biden can and should pardon whoever the fuck he wants, especially to those people Trump has threatened retaliation.
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So two wrongs make a right I guess? Why shouldn’t we be holding all these people accountable?
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Biden had all the justification he needed when Trump indicated he’d target his political opponents if he won.
Anyone complaining about this can fuck off.
He should pardon himself for everything before he leaves office so Maga can’t drum up some stupid made up thing to tie up his last years.
Or resign so Kamala can in the last day if he can’t.
Use trumps political retribution statement as the reason.
Or resign so Kamala can in the last day if he can’t.
I want to see that just so all that 45+47 stuff refers to Kamala
He should pardon himself for everything before he leaves office
He doesn’t need to. Presidents have immunity for “official acts”. Womp womp.
I’d say he should and then when the courts rule he can’t, Trump’s self pardon won’t work either but that’s a pipe dream.
But bidens crime was being born, and there’s no statute of limitations on that one!
Gotta be honest. That’s just a really silly thing to say.
Yup. I’d do the same.
In a perfect world I’d say he needs to let the system work and nobody is above the law, yada yada yada. Clearly this world and country are horribly fucked. For YEARS Republicans have been using the term “Biden Family” to make them sound like some kind of crime syndicate, coming up with “ominous facts” that were not indicative of any actual crime, held an impeachment over President Bidens head for years, distributed naked pictures of Hunter, and interfered with what would’ve been a simple plea deal, all the while trying to downplay the most corrupt presidency in our history.
Fuck the norms. Fuck ethics. Fuck propriety. The new America requires you to use every tool at your disposal just to get your most basic fucking rights. If Republicans think this is such an abuse of power they can do their fucking jobs for once in their lives and pass some fucking ethics reform. I applaud Joe’s embrace of the new normal and I hope other Democrats figure out this is the new normal, whether they like it or not, and stop playing pussyfoot with a party that’s been playing “kick the groin” for over 30 years.
The only people allowed to be outraged on this are Democrats. The Republican party lost their right to be angry about this kinda stupid stuff shortly after they elected a rapist.
Republicans are faux angry. They clearly don’t really care about the deed at all. If anything they’re gleeful because they get to run around and call Biden a nepotistic liar.
Some Democrats are angry because Biden just handed the Republican a stinky turd that they’re going to throw in our face every time someone brings up any of their lies or nepotism.
Many Democrats don’t seem to care either, as long as Trump is worse.
a stinky turd that they’re going to throw in our face every time someone brings up any of their lies or nepotism.
They already had the stinky turd and were going to throw it anyway. They have many stinky turds. Much throwing!
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Words have proven futile. If Dems don’t play the same game Republicans play we WILL lose this democracy.
Democracy has already been lost if every party has to play that game
Cool, so pardon someone besides your own son Joe. You can dress it up in flowery speech if you want but until this supposed willingness to play dirty leads to improvements in someone else’s life this is just more of the same bullshit. He’s not helping America with this action he’s helping himself. That’s not noble at all.
He already has one dead son, so I doubt he’s in the mood to offer another as a sacrifice to the MAGAs
Agree that this looks and feels bad, but Hunter was overly scrutinized and punished for his crimes. He already paid his due and was the victim of a real witch hunt. If Trump was pardoning Don Jr I’d be pissed (depending on the crimes I suppose, let DonnyJ do some drugs), but that would be different because Hunter was never involved in politics, held public office or government positions, etc.
I don’t care what his reasoning is. We elected him to protect democracy from Trump and this is perhaps the most obvious example that he’s always been more interested in protecting him and his friends than the rest of us. We all know what’s coming in 6 weeks and look at our supposed protector’s most significant action since the election, handing out a pardon to his own family just like Trump did. Thanks Joe, I’m sure we’ll all sleep better over the next 4 years knowing you dealt with Hunter’s problems instead of ours.
“Nothing will fundamentally change.”
This isn’t even “the game”. It’s not getting Democrats anything, but it’s also incredibly irrelevant and no one can credibly clutch pearls about abusing pardon powers when it’s basically been a get out of jail free card for big donors for years. It’s already broken and corrupt, and Hunter doesn’t even rank anywhere close to the previous ghouls that have been pardoned, including by the guy who’s succeeding Biden. Never mind Republicans who have been 100x worse, this isn’t even remotely as bad as Clinton’s pardons.
Democracy has already been lost. Turning into mindless beasts won’t bring it back. Neoliberals have voted for the lesser evil so many times that they’re cheering for blatant political corruption, why would you expect them to want a return to democracy? They just want a dictatorship with “their guy” in charge.
I would have felt better if Biden was more honest about this. “Yes, this is a blatant abuse of my power, and shouldn’t be allowed, but it is squarely within my Official Duties. The Supreme Court says that the only remedy is impeachment. Hey, Mike, I double-dog dare ya to do it!”
Conveniently forgetting the fact Trump has literally thousands of pardons lined up for when he gets back in office
How does that saying go? Something like “if they didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all”
I’m surprised Republicans can even remember what a moral high ground looks like let alone pretend to hold it. According to them attempted insurrection, rape, grifting, child sex trafficking, taking away citizens rights on religious grounds, nepotism in high ranking government roles bypassing security screening, soliciting other countries for election interference, abandoning foreign allies, attempting to undermine elections, pardoning murderers, denying election results, etc are all legal and morally okay for people to commit with no restitution for victims or consequences for perpetrators.
Wow, they can’t even see far enough ahead to when their side is pardoning all the toadies. Shaking my head.
