Biden’s pardon for son angers rivals—and allies
WASHINGTON—Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter has antagonized both sides of the US political divide, with Republicans crying hypocrisy and Democrats warning it undermines efforts to rein in Donald Trump.
Biden’s announcement shocked Washington, after he entered the White House in 2021 vowing to restore the “integrity” of a justice system that Democrats said had been corrupted by Trump—and because he had specifically vowed not to reprieve his son.
The president instead issued a “full and unconditional” pardon on Sunday, absolving 54-year-old Hunter Biden of any wrongdoing over the last decade, charged or otherwise, just ahead of his looming sentencing over gun and tax convictions.
Biden argued that his son had been targeted in a politicized prosecution launched under the Trump administration and that “there’s no reason to believe it will stop here.”
Hunter was actually prosecuted by Biden’s Justice Department led by a special counsel appointed by the current president’s Justice secretary, Merrick Garland.
The presidential son was tried in the Biden hometown of Delaware and convicted by a federal jury.
Backlash
The backlash from Biden’s own side was swift.
“This is going to be used against us when we’re fighting the misuses that are coming from the Trump administration,” Glenn Ivey, a Democratic lawmaker in Maryland and an attorney, told CNN.
“He’s leaving office in complete and total disgrace. He is a liar and there’s no other way to spin this today,” conservative political strategist Scott Jennings, a White House staffer under George W. Bush, told CNN.
Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Biden’s son had brought his legal woes on himself and accused the president of having “put his family ahead of the country.”
“This is a bad precedent,” Polis posted on X.
