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President Biden Pardons Hunter Biden - with Democratic and Republican remarks - Updated Dec. 2 [1]

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Date: 2024-12-02  

President Biden has reversed course and decided to give a full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter Biden, covering offenses committed between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2014., "including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) by Special Counsel David C. Weiss."

"From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision making, and I have kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out because he's my son, and that is wrong."

"The charges in his cases only came about after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion but that Hunter was singled out because he's my son, and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter, who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break hunter, they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

"For my entire career, I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They'll be fair-minded."

"Here's the truth: I believe in the justice system, but I have wrestled with this, I believe that raw politics has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice, and once I made the decision this weekend there was no point in delaying it further. I hope that Americans would understand why a father and a President would come to this decision," President Biden said in his statement.

The New York Post had a quote that nobody else had from Joe Biden. "Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back consequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently."

Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced on the gun charge on December 12th. He was also going to be sentenced later for his guilty plea on tax evasion charges.

Responding with his own statement, Hunter said, "I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction. Mistakes that have been exploited to shame and publicly humiliate me and my family for political sport."

"In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery, we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy we have been afforded."

"I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted, and will devote the life I have rebuilt to those who are sick and suffering," Hunter Biden said further.

It seems that President Biden has finally called a spade a spade with the charge that the prosecution of his son was politically motivated. I think everyone believed that. But I don't think anyone expected President Biden to actually say it. Good for him.

Hunter is also now free to say what he really thinks without fear of recrimination or attack. He rightly called the prosecution "political sport." Let's see how both sides of the aisle react.

Prepare now for the onslaught of Republican pundits, commentators, Senators, Congressmen, and even some of Trump's nominees to put their two cents worth in.

Republicans chime in:

It didn't take long. Steven Chung, Trump's Communications director, said, "The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system." He said more, that Trump is going to fix the justice system when he gets in office. He probably means fixed, as in neutered.

Sen.Ted Cruz. "This aged like fine milk."

Rep. Nancy Mace: "Biden crime family... and no longer looking to hide it either."

Sen. Chuck Grassley: " I'm shocked President Biden pardoned his son Hunter bc he said many times he wouldn't & I believed him. Shame on me."

Reps Tom Emmer and Eli Crane highlighted Biden's earlier comment that, "No one is above the law, unless your name is Biden."

The one kind word, strangely enough, came from conservative Charlie Kirk: "Honestly, I don't think this is something worth getting mad over. A father should look after his son. Joe has been so mistreated by the Democrat party, and disrespected, this is the one thing he actually always cared about."

Jim Jordan asked, "Democrats have said there was nothing to our impeachment inquiry. That's the case, then why did Joe Biden just issue Hunter Biden a pardon about the very things we were inquiring about?"

Marjorie Taylor Greene: the pardon is, "Joe Biden's admission that Hunter Biden is a criminal," calling President Biden, "a liar and a hypocrite, all the way to the end."

James Comer's normal ramble of, "corrupt influencing peddling activities," and "doing everything they can to avoid accountability."

John Barrasso said that the pardon, "proves to the American people that there is a two-tiered justice system."

Andy Biggs:

Donald Trump Jr: "Everyone knew he was going to do it. He was just going to do it when it was of no consequence to Democrat electability," he posted on X. Elon Musk immediately reposted it on X.

The most looked for assessment of the pardon will, of course, be from President-elect Donald Trump. Will he simply shine it on as something that was bound to happen? Will he criticize President Biden for having done so? Will he make direct attacks on Hunter Biden? He has so many people that could be attack dogs for him that he may not think it necessary to comment. But knowing Donald Trump, I don't think he'll be able to resist.

I was right, he couldn't resist. Here's Trump's first response:

"Does the Pardon that Joe gave to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been in prison for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!"

Trump, of course, did not mention his pardon of Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner's father, who has been nominated by Trump to be US Ambassador to France. Strangely enough, the prosecutor on Kushner's case was Chris Christie. Neither did he mention his pardons of Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, and other disreputable criminals.

Democratic responses varied:

​​​​​​ White House spokesperson Karin Jean-Pierre explain the president's decision. "One of the reasons the President did the pardon is because it didn't seem his political opponents would let go of it, it didn't seem like they would move on. And so, this is why he took this action."

Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona thought, "Biden got this wrong. This wasn't a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers."

Rep.Jasmine Crockett of Texas warned those, "those clutching their pearls, " I would say to look in the mirror because we also know that when it comes to this Cabinet, this Cabinet has more people accused of sexual assault than probably ever in the history of America."

Jamie Raskin said, "There is a defense called selective prosecution. if you can show that the goverment has cases that look alike, but they pick one person out to prosecute, based on, say, a political animus towards the person, which is essentially in the claim that Donald Trump has been making about why he was targeted, the President has the power to show mercy for people who have committed crimes and either have suffered some kind of injustice in the process or the the punishment is disproportionate."

Rep. Steve Cohen : "The president lost one son and would do anything he could do for the remaining son. I'm in no way surprised as the father-son relationship is so strong."

A teacher at American University, Jeffery Crouch, said, "a pardon from Joe Biden would still be an abuse of the clemency power. Presidents should not use clemency to help out their friends, family or allies in order to further their own interest."

Andrew Yang, an independent, wrote on X, "Joe Biden pardoning Hunter looks bad, but most fathers would do the same things under the circumstances."

Ezra Klein, a NY Times opinion columnist wrote, "it's terrible politics and precedent.Precedent. The Trump team has been brutally clear that they want revenge on their enemies, they are obsessed with Hunter in particular, and that would weigh like hell on me if I were his father and could protect him.

Pollster Nate Silver commented, "...Democrats indulged in a lot of bad behavior that voters were rational to publish. After the White House lying about the Hunter pardon I not sure how much more I can tolerate." He called for voters to reject "any Democrat in 2028 who doesn't repudiate the pardon in 48 hours."

David Corn, Bureau chief of Mother Jones said, "We're not accepting any complaints about the Hunter Biden pardon unless you also complained about the Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, Roger Stone and Paul Manafort pardons."

Juliette Kayyem, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, said, "Whatever Biden said may have been legitimately superceded by intervening events, such as Patel's nomination to the FBI. If all reporters are tweeting is that Biden changed his mind, perhaps do some reporting as to why."

Former State Rep. Bakari Sellers opined that Republicans, "ran (AND won on pardoning an actual insurrectionist). Chill on a man pardoning his son."

Commentator Keith Olbermann argued that Biden didn't go far enough and should, "pardon everybody else. Every prosecutor, every Biden administration staffer, every media figure, everybody Trump will persecute. 10 million pardons. At least."

Qasim Rashid, said, "...he can't stop there...commute death penalty for 40 Americans on federal death row, cancel student debt by via EO, and force Trump to revive it & protect abortion nationwide via EO. Get bold. Take action. Slow down MAGA fascism!"

Eric Swalwell had the last word. "If you defended the 34x felon, who committed sexual assault, stole national security documents, and tried running a coup on his country... you can sit out the hunter Biden pardon discussion."

NOTE: I have had to piece together the complete statements from multiple news sources. I think I've put them together in the right order.

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