Politically, this don’t matter. But it’s an abuse of power. The problem is that most pardons are not really defensible. It’s a power borrowed from the monarch’s prerogative.
I think a lot of what people saw in the spring was his despair and depression over what was happening to his son (and his grandkids and his wife, because prison happens to a family) and knowing that if it wasn't his son, none of it would be happening.
All of that plus I don't give a flying fuck what any Rethuglican says about anything. They support a pussygrabbing felon who instigated an attack on Congress so fuck them.
Thank you! Seems like the left elite media still has not learned this. They still expect the left to do things differently and hold them to a higher standard - with no reward if the left does it right.
Agree 100% GOP have been rubbing their hands together with glee and now will have to whine instead about norms. President Biden can do one of these every day for a month and leave them in fits of rage. I'm here for it.
Your point about the world passing Democrats by is key. In some ways this will be the easiest of the norm breaking decisions to get behind. Over the coming 4 years, Dems need to figure out how to fight in the world as it is, and not as it was, without losing sight of core values. Thats a tough one.
It's a presidential power specifically enumerated in the Constitution. All pardons are legal; Supreme Court ruled just this year that official acts by presidents enjoy absolute immunity.
If it isn't honoring legal and moral norms to pardon a man unfairly targeted for political persecution -- who would never have been pursued with such malice if he were anyone other than the son of a man Trump hates -- then what are we even doing here.
I'd have been fine with commuted sentences or with pardons for the two cases that have been adjudicated.
Not fine with a blanket pardon, not for Nixon and not for Hunter Biden. It's an abuse of power and if it stands as precedent - JFC. Not often we can say "not even Trump did that"
But now he will
It's not. Hunter Biden got in this because the gop and Trump pursued this political witch hunt against his father since 2019. He got convicted on the silliest of charges that are typically dismissed if he was not Joe Biden's son.
I agree that "Doing something that's right at the line of ethical behavior gives Trump an excuse to cross it" is a weak argument, but there's a legit critique, which is, "Of all the things Biden could use his vast powers for, he went for the self-serving choice."
Sure but why is THIS the norm he’s willing to buck? He could have done real good for abortion rights, for democracy itself, etc. and always ran up against imaginary guardrails. But when it comes to his own family…
Josh, note that a difference between X and bsky is that here you can't tilt your phone and enlarge a screenshot to read it, so it works better for us if you make them narrower. True on the Android app, at any rate
Agree. Biden already sacrificed one son for the country. No need to fall on his sword and sacrifice Hunter by delivering him to the clutches of a malignant narcissist like Trump just to "keep his word" and adhere to "norms" when a bunch of voters decided to throw away our democracy anyway.
I think it’s bad for the president to pardon family members, full stop. But, I also think you’re right that it’s foolish for one side to follow norms when the other doesn’t. The question I have is whether you can have the rule of law without observing norms. I suspect not. America is in trouble.
There’s an argument letting GOP reopen investigations and go after Hunter for the next four years would be bad overall as it would distract and/or demoralize. Maybe better to let everyone be mad at Joe then focus on the results of GOP policies
How interesting. An "expert" from the punditry class explaining how America has turned its back on expertise.
Let me help, from the perspective of a non-expert American who goes to work and pays taxes. Please google the Powell memo if you haven't already. Then check out supply-side economics if
Josh..I really respect you and your work. I've read you prolifically for years and learned a lot from you. However the post from Silver was just a bridge too far. Democrats spend their lives sucked in the tar baby of the culture wars, forever wringing our hands and wondering what went wrong.
you're unfamiliar with that term. Then study those in the contest of the "Reagan Revolution." Now let's cut to the chase. The wealthiest Americans and the corporate world conspired to take back our nation from the working and middle classes, through a meticulous long range plan.
This plan involved generous tax cuts and give backs to the richest of us, the outsourcing of labor to slave labor, deregulation, and basically strangling the working class. Then, as people got more desperate, they waged a culture war, pitting Americans against each other. Instead of talking
economic policy, we became obsessed with abortion, gay folk, people of color, immigrants, and the biggest boogie monster of all-trans people. This left the political scene wide open at the mercy of a nasty demagogue. Don't believe me? Just ask JD Vance.
Josh, on my feed most of the pearl-clutching is coming from the never-Trumpers. Most Dems on my feed are quickly becoming pragmatic realists and know that they would have tortured Hunter and Joe just for the sport of it. Not to mention that they would have tried to bankrupt them with it.
I’ve seen that pattern too. I respect it. They’re not Dems. They’re here just for the rule following. They’ve torched their political identity for it. So it lands differently for them. I don’t agree. But I get why their perspective is different.
I back Biden's decision with Hunter's pardon 100%. So true that Hunter was targeted ONLY BECAUSE he's Biden's son. And with the knowledge that there will be almost no guardrails in place to contain Trump's worst impulses, this pardon is simply the right thing to do 💙💙🥺.
It’s kind of funny if you think of it. Joe Biden sacrificed his son on the altar of judicial piety and when he raises him from the dead the kind of people who are usually into that kind of thing lose their shit.
I give a F*** - A Presidential pardon is legal. A Presidential pardon is Constitutional. The personal aspect is appropriate. Your opinion is... not required.
I am for the pardon partly because I know Hunter, for all his failings, would not have had to face this if his father was not Joe.
But mainly I am for it because I don't believe Hunter would be safe in even a minimum security prison with the ferals in charge of the federal government.
As usual, Josh Marshall gets it exactly right. No one gives a fuck about norms except when they can be used to bash Democrats. Norms went out the window years ago, and the sooner Democrats learn that lesson, the better. Also, fuck the MSM for not being holding each party to different standards.
exactly. especially the outlaw word (as my third grade teacher SIL used to call them to her students). Nailed it. And we need to play Garry Kasparov chess, not Beetle Bailey checkers.
As he stated, there was no evidence that this would end here, so he believed enough was enough, Comer went on Fox News & declared they were going to continue their persecution of Hunter during the next Congress & the the nomination of Patel gave him no other option.
Absolutely, to say I can’t read what all of these people have done and can’t see the difference is insulting. Hunter isn’t equal to Charles Kushner by far. Enough
Except the Democrats of Colorado seem to be having a problem with Hunter's. pardon, which causes me to have a problem with Bennett and Polis. Biden agreed to be our president for 4 years, not to sacrifice his son to Republicans' petty vengeance.
Your is not of the best comments about the pardon. There really is a lot of nonsense coming from some lefties arguing against it. 'This'll free Trump to misbehave' they tell me. Trump never considers right vs wrong, only what's in it for him.
This. I’m seeing a number of takes on here lamenting the pardon for norm-based reasons, but the norm-based world died in 2016 (and probably before that). Norms aren’t norms anymore when only one party follows them. Biden’s pardon was justified and will make no difference on Trump’s behavior.
Also, FWIW, it’s not a norm-buster either. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother and donors. Trump’s pardons of his accomplices are well known. Biden hasn’t stepped out into any new frontier.
Dems are always expected to be the norm-abiding adults in the room, while the GOP and Trump trample over the rule of law with no consequences. It's well past time for Dems to say "f*ck it, who cares"
Rxn to this pardon is a great way to separate the ppl who understand the current political situation from the ppl who will continue to advocate bringing additional knives to each ensuing gunfight.
Comments
Trump doesn't care about the legal basis for anything, and we can't trust the Federal courts to apply that immunity standard equally.
Not fine with a blanket pardon, not for Nixon and not for Hunter Biden. It's an abuse of power and if it stands as precedent - JFC. Not often we can say "not even Trump did that"
But now he will
Let me help, from the perspective of a non-expert American who goes to work and pays taxes. Please google the Powell memo if you haven't already. Then check out supply-side economics if
So Ds shouldn't be defending a women's right to medical care?
These are mostly R "obsessions."
4. Does this relate to pardons or is it just an off-topic rant?
But mainly I am for it because I don't believe Hunter would be safe in even a minimum security prison with the ferals in charge of the federal government.
History says that Presidents pardon people, there's a moment of outrage and then everyone moves on.
Exhibit A: Make Merrick Garland A.G. b/c he was treated unfairly as SCOTUS nominee.
Exhibit B: Pardon son because he loves him, even though Hunter was a jackass whose actions tainted Biden.