Joe Biden’s unpardonable offense
Pardoning Hunter Biden doesn’t serve Hunter – or our country
What a disappointment.
When Joe Biden ran for President in 2020, he promised to work to unite Americans, restore norms to the office, and be a transitional President. More recently he promised he wouldn’t pardon his son.
The promise didn’t last.
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday following Thanksgiving. In a wide reaching pardon that stretched back to 2014, President Biden excused his son for, among other things, trying to scam the federal government of at least $1.4 million owed in taxes. He also pardoned him for lying to officials about his eligibility to buy a gun — a gun that was recovered from a garbage can, after it was thrown there by his mistress, who, strangely, was the wife of his deceased brother.
There is no doubt the Biden family has suffered tragedies. Hunter is the last living son of Biden’s first wife, who was tragically killed in a car accident. I can’t imagine the pain they’ve suffered. Hunter and his brother, Beau, were there when their mother and sister died. It was in the aftermath of Beau’s untimely death from cancer that Hunter found himself in trouble with the law. Some have said they can understand a President wanting to help his son after all of that.
But when as a society did we start believing that we help a child when we excuse their abuses, especially when they break the law we’re charged to enforce?
And what about President Biden’s promise to the American people?
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To be sure, President Biden is not the first President to excuse the illegal behavior of a family member with a Presidential pardon.
President Trump, in fact, just announced a family member he pardoned, Charles Kushner, is his pick to be Ambassador to France. Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, was convicted of (among other things) hiring a prostitute to entrap his brother-in-law; recording the incident and sending it to his sister; tax evasion; and illegal campaign contributions. (It was former Trump ally Chris Christie who had prosecuted Kushner. Kushner had served 16 months of his 2 year sentence, before receiving the pardon in 2020 by Donald Trump.)
In 2001, on his last day in office, Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton Jr. for 1985 cocaine charges.
President Biden is also not the first President to watch the painful struggles of a loved one with addiction. Betty Ford, wife of Gerald Ford, famously struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, and after recovering, worked to advocate for others’ treatment.
People can recover and we should advocate for that. It doesn’t mean we should help them to evade consequences or not confront their demons.
I don’t understand when we normalized, as a society, this misnomer that by covering for our family member’s sins, we’re somehow helping, instead of enabling bad behavior.
In my experience, paying the consequences of behavior is essential for any chance of change.
So many of us across the country have had family members who have suffered from addiction. Both parties in this election talked about the toll fentanyl has had on our society. This in the long line of drugs I’ve seen affect our communities – from meth to crack to heroin to cocaine – just in my lifetime.
Personally I’ve had loved ones who tragically were robbed of their soul – and ultimately life – because of the demons of drugs and alcohol. But as I watched these incidents growing up, I saw that forgiving those demons didn’t help the situation, but enabled the behavior that would only later end in tragedy.
That’s my fear for President Biden and his son. That he is serving not as his protector, but his enabler.
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There’s a transition that’s taking place in January, but it’s not the transition Biden promised when he won our support in 2020.
Voters lost trust in President Biden, and his debate performance only served to validate what President Trump had been saying for months, that Biden would struggle to speak and that he was struggling to serve. If he had any goodwill left, his decision to pardon Hunter undermines one of his most central promises: That he would be different than his predecessor.
It’s a sad end to a long political career. Biden was vaulted to the Vice Presidency only after a President I served, President Obama, won the trust of people, promising to do better. I believe he did. When President Biden ran made similar promises that I was hoping to see him keep. I was hoping to see a united America, one that could move beyond petty politics, and do better. That promise, too, seems lost.
President Biden addressed his pardon with a statement in which he claims the pardon was granted because of what he sees as political targeting of his son. While there has certainly been a lot of attention on those who are elected and their families for any abuses of the law, I’m still of the mindset that to whom much is given, much is expected. Following the law seems to be a low bar.
An even bigger disappointment is that in granting this pardon President Biden – who promised a brighter future – became what he ran against. He has not brought about a better more united future, but in his action he has permitted worse abuses ahead.