We knew FJB would pardon Hunter, his bagman and son. Blood is thicker than water, but not as thick as someone having the dirt on you. Hunter had the receipts and put them on a laptop. The question was when the pardon would come because timing is everything in politics and comedy.
Friday afternoons are great for burying bad news and the best Friday of the year is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when everybody is either sleeping off a turkey or slugging it out at Walmart over a $99 big screen TV. Weaves be a-flying on Aisle 12.
FJB passed on that opportunity and chose the worst time of the week — Sunday afternoon, making sure the story would be on front pages and morning talk shows on Monday to set the tone for the week.
When Democrats threw him under the bus, they awoke the demented kraken. First, he sabotaged Kamala by endorsing her. Then he put on a MAGA hat. Now this.
The Democrat fear is delicious.
Governor Jared Polis tweeted, “While as a father I certainly understand President Biden’s natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”
FJB sullied his reputation long ago. He said he pardoned Hunter because the prosecution was politically motivated. Biden thinks voters are as dumb as he is.
Congressman Greg Stanton tweeted, “This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Well, there goes any federal funding in Phoenix.
Senator Michael Bennet tweeted, “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.”
As tepid as these statements are in public, they mask the seething that must be going on behind closed doors because in pardoning Hunter, the soon-to-be-ex-president enabled Trump to pardon all the J6 political prisoners without a legitimate complaint from anyone.
Oh, some Democrats tried valiantly to defend FJB. Geraldo Rivera trotted out the What-About-ism. Trump appointed the father-in-law of Ivanka as ambassador to France, after pardoning him four years ago.
Geraldo said, “Most dads including this one would do what Joe Biden did. Blood is thicker than water. He was willing to tarnish his honor and reputation to save his child (who he believed was being shafted). Too bad, but it’s not like he appointed him Ambassador to France.”
Unlike Hunter, the Pa-in-Law did a year in prison. Hunter did not.
But I like Geraldo’s logic here. Pardoning a family member is honorable when FJB does it but tawdry when Trump does it.
Most of the media isn’t helping FJB this time.
Bill D'Agostino of the Media Research Center tweeted with a video, “BRUTAL: Brianna Keilar on CNN just made Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) watch a clip of himself insisting that Biden would never pardon Hunter. She then asked: ‘What does that feel like?’
“They even kept him on-screen as the video played so we could watch his reaction.”
Joe Scarborough, the party’s chief apologist, went on the air without a pardon single talking point from the DNC. Mike Miller reported it took Morning Joe 52 minutes to even mention the pardon on his show. Even Gunga Din could not carry water that was not yet delivered.
The president flew to Angola, a nation without an extradition treaty with the USA, and after months of insisting he would not pardon Hunter, the president’s spokeswoman, Clarabelle the Clown, told reporters, “He said he came to this decision this weekend, and he said he wrestled with this and, because he believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.
“Hunter was singled out, and because his last name was Biden, because he was the president’s son. That’s what we saw. And so the president believed enough is enough, and the president took action, and he also believes that they tried to break his son in order to break him.”
They, in this case, being Biden’s Department of Justice.
The Hill’s spin on the spokeswoman’s words was, “Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One that the president made his decision in part because he believed Republicans and President-elect Trump wouldn’t let up on prosecuting his son once the incoming administration took over.”
So blame the pardon on Trump for saying he was going to prosecute Hunter for the crimes he committed.
Eric Swalwell, who banged banged Fang Fang, tweeted, “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.”
If you cavorted with a spy for Red China, you should sit everything out.
To his credit, Bill Clinton is sitting this one out so far after pardoning Marc Rich for $1 million in the last day of Clinton’s presidency.
Steve Benen at MSNBC picked up on Swalwell’s talking point, writing, “The one person, however, who should sit this one out, is Donald Trump, who apparently couldn’t help himself.”
Benen did not like Trump’s pardon of Roger Stone and others who went to prison thanks to a politicized FBI that gave Hillary a pass on giving state secrets to foreign governments and oligarchs when she was secretary of State.
I would tell Mister Benen, so what? I didn’t like the FBI doing an early-morning raid on Stone and his wife with a CNN crew in tow.
Two can play that what-about game.
A few libs see the turf Biden burned at the Department of Justice.
At Politico, Alexander Burns wrote, “It is a rich gift to those who want to blow up the justice system as we know it, and who claim the government is a self-dealing club for hypocritical elites. It is a promise-breaking act that subjects Biden’s allies to yet another humiliation in a year packed with Biden-inflicted injuries.
“The decision comes at a moment when the capital is girding for an assault on federal law enforcement institutions led by President-elect Donald Trump and his appointees.
“In recent days, Trump has named ideological hardliners, political operatives and family retainers to powerful jobs atop the FBI, the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”
I’m not really sure how the director of national intelligence fits into law enforcement, but if Burns says so, it fits. Right?
Democrats can spin all they want but Biden kept his co-conspirer out of prison while delivering a hit where Democrats sit.
AP reported, “Already reeling from their November defeats, Democrats now are grappling with President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for federal crimes, with some calling the move misguided and unwise after the party spent years slamming Donald Trump as a threat to democracy who disregarded the law.
“The president pardoned Hunter Biden late Sunday evening, reversing his previous pledges with a grant of clemency that covers more than a decade of any federal crimes his son might have committed. The 82-year-old president said in a statement that his son’s prosecution on charges of tax evasion and falsifying a federal weapons purchase form were politically motivated.”
Yes, the indictments were motivated by the politics of making it appear as no one is above the law — the mantra to rationalize the persecution of President Trump. No honest person is buying Biden’s attempt to make Hunter appear to be the victim of a witch hunt.
AP also reported, “That explanation did not satisfy some Democrats, angry that Biden’s reversal could make it harder to take on Trump, who has argued that multiple indictments and one conviction against him were a matter of Biden and Democrats turning the justice system against him.”
Many are those who are upset not by Biden’s lies or pardon but because it helps validate Trump’s contention that DC is corrupt.
CNN’s Chris Cillizza tweeted, “A colossally selfish decision that will allow every Trump supporter to note that Democrats say one thing and do another.”
Shouldn’t he be angrier about Democrats saying one thing and doing another?
People are saying the pardon tarnishes Biden’s reputation. I say the pardon underscores it.
The pardon was a watershed moment — and once again the water is liberal tears.
If Democrats didn’t want FJB to pardon his son, they should not have made FJB president. After his 46 years in the Senate and White House, everyone in DC knew Biden was dumb and crooked.
Now the rest of America knows he is a vengeful old man, the perfect symbol for his dying party.
Alleged President Joe Stolen wasn't pardoning just his son; he was closing the trail of felonies that lead directly to him and everybody else in the Biden Crime Family.
When Democrats threw FJB under the bus, they awoke the demented kraken.
Roar of laughter 😅 Thanks, Don.