‘Abuse of power’: Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his own son is indefensible

Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son in the dying months of his presidency has sparked debate. There’s really no debate to be had, though.

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Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, in the dying months of his presidency is obviously an abuse of power. Obviously. There is no debate to be waged, no excuses to be made, no whataboutism that could possibly forgive it.

There’s just no ambiguity here. The guy is weeks away from retirement and has chosen to chuck his son a favour based on nothing more than their family connection. Ethics, norms and political conventions be damned.

Some of you are chafing at the blunt language I’m using. Throw yourself into a hypothetical where Donald Trump is about to leave office, and one of his sons, let’s say Don Jr, has been convicted of a crime. And Mr Trump pardons him. How would you react to that? Not well, I would hope.

Mr Biden had promised not to do this, for what that’s worth, though it has little bearing on the broader moral calculus. It is an indefensible act regardless of what he pledged.

The fact that he had committed to restoring respect for the rule of law, only to undermine it in his waning days, is just a teensy cherry of hypocrisy on top of the already festering cake.

Nothing, not even Mr Trump’s victory in last month’s election, could have been more corrosive to whatever morsel remained of Mr Biden’s legacy.

What’s left of it now? He ostensibly ran to expunge Mr Trump from American politics – big fail there – and to reinstate the norms of his country’s democracy. So much for that.

Joe and Hunter Biden. Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

We can acknowledge the human impulse at play here, I suppose, without condoning it. Mr Biden wants to help his son, whatever the cost to his own reputation. Just about fine, as the act of a father, but not as the act of a public servant sworn to uphold the law.

In June, a jury convicted Hunter of illegally buying and possessing a gun as a drug user. Then, in September, he pleaded guilty to nine charges stemming from more than a million US dollars in unpaid taxes.

Hunter committed these crimes. That is not in dispute. His father has merely decided to absolve him of responsibility, because he can. This is not acceptable in a system where all citizens are supposedly equal. It cannot be acceptable.

“Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,” Mr Biden said in his statement today.

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.

“It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came about only after several of my 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 than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.”

Hunter Biden. Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP

Utter crap.

There is one relevant question here, and it’s the same question Democrats asked about Mr Trump regarding January 6, or his retention of classified documents: did Hunter Biden commit the offences of which he was convicted, and to which he pleaded guilty? The answer is yes.

Shorter version: did he do it? Again, the answer is yes.

OK, one more question: given that answer, should he be treated like any other American under the law? Or should he get a pass because his daddy happens to be the President?

Democrats have spent years, years arguing, correctly, that Mr Trump should be afforded no special dispensation by the justice system because he’s a former president. All citizens in a democracy should be equal, they said. No one man should be above the law.

And here we are now. A private citizen being allowed to get away with crimes because of his father’s position in public office.

Pay close attention to which public figures defend Mr Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter, in the coming days, and which condemn it. It will be an instructive exercise, one that will let us filter out the hypocrites.

Joe and Hunter Biden leaving Air Force One. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

The moment a politician starts to see their power as an instrument of their personal whims, rather than a privilege granted, in trust, to help their constituents, the game is up. Mr Biden once realised, or pretended to realise, that truth. He pointed scornfully at the self-absorbed circus of Mr Trump’s first term and promised to do better.

This isn’t better. It’s the same disregard for the rule of law with a different flavour.

A subtext here is the absurdity of America’s pardon power, which is available both to a president at the federal level and a governor at state level.

The idea that one person should have the right to unilaterally override the rule of law is, on its face, preposterous, even when their own family members aren’t involved.

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision,” Mr Biden said today.

A father? Yes. Sure. Protect your son, whatever the price of that defence may be.

A president, though? No. That is a higher bar, and the moment you’re elected to high office you forfeit the right to ignore it.

Mr Biden’s failure, or more accurately, his refusal to understand the distinction between those two propositions condemns him.

Twitter: @SamClench

Originally published as ‘Abuse of power’: Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his own son is indefensible