President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden was not well received, especially after after months of saying that he would not interfere as the legal process played out.
Biden’s Sunday evening announcement that he would use his presidential authority to forgive felony tax and gun charge convictions against his son drew swift pushback from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, while U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley pointed out there are many other Americans unfairly impacted by the U.S. justice system who could benefit from the President’s mercy.
“Today, I’m thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people who pose no threat to society and whose lives are deteriorating due to America’s mass incarceration crisis and unjust criminal legal system,” she said in a statement.
Biden forgave his son, Pressley said, in response to “what he saw as an injustice of the legal system” and could similarly use his clemency powers “to change the lives of families across this nation — families who are disproportionately Black and brown, with loved ones behind the wall suffering from injustices of the legal system.”
But a president pardoning his own family isn’t going to make people feel like they live under an equal legal system, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said via social media.
“President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” the Colorado Democrat wrote.
The younger Biden was convicted on three felonies charges after he unlawfully purchased and possessed a gun while addicted to a controlled substance. He also faced charges for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
Not holding him to account for those charges is not a good precedent for a president to set, said Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters.
“President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong. A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment. This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests,” the Michigan lawmaker wrote.
Vermont’s U.S. Sen. Peter Welch said Biden’s decision is “understandable” when viewed as “the action of a loving father” but not “as the action of our nation’s Chief Executive.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, noted Biden had made clear many time he would not to use his authority to prevent his son from answering “for his serious crimes.”
“But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade! Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it,” he said.
Biden said in issuing the pardon that his son’s crimes are normally not prosecuted and that a plea deal generally accepted in similar circumstances was torpedoed by Republican intervention.
Considering that, Biden said, “no reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”
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