President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden is further bruising a party that was already reeling from blistering electoral losses, with a wave of Capitol Hill Democrats criticizing the move as counterproductive to their party’s efforts toward rebuilding public trust in American institutions scorned by President-elect Trump.
While some Democrats extended a measure of sympathy, President Biden took heat on several fronts, with most who have spoken out indicating the move did more harm than good.
“President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is, as the action of a loving father, understandable — but as the action of our nation’s Chief Executive, unwise,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said on the social platform X.
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Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) posted that the pardon “was wrong,” while Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said it puts “personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
The president announced a “full and unconditional pardon” for his son on Sunday night, sending shock waves throughout Washington. It marked a major reversal for the White House, which for months insisted the president would not pardon Hunter Biden or commute his sentence.
The president argued the charges brought against the younger Biden were motivated by politics and the years-long scrutiny of him from Trump and other Republicans — complete with a winding impeachment probe and other lines of inquiry fueled by now-discredited informants.
Hunter Biden’s legal team, similarly, argued in a lengthy 52-page white paper released over the weekend that he faced tax and gun charges “that no one without the name ‘Biden’ would have faced.” He was set to be sentenced later this month on both charges of failing to pay taxes and lying on gun forms.
But a number of Democrats saw President Biden’s sweeping clemency for his son — clearing him of any federal crimes committed during an 11-year period — as fueling the kind of arguments of a rigged and unfair system that are pushed by Trump.
“As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) wrote on X.
Even Democrats who say the GOP attention on Hunter Biden has been too intense are balking at the president’s move. The Republican-led panel leaders had deeply probed the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, with outsized attention placed on Hunter Biden.
“I can sympathize with his perspective that his son was subject to vigilante justice. I certainly witnessed that in Republican depositions of Hunter Biden and his attorney,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Monday on CNN.
“But having said that, what other father in America has the power to pardon their son or daughter if they’re convicted of a crime?” Connolly added. “I really think we have to revisit the pardon power in the Constitution, and at the very least, I think we’ve got to circumscribe it so that you don’t get to pardon relatives, even if you believe passionately they’re innocent.”
President Biden also faced criticism for reversing his long-held stance that he would not pardon his son. The president and White House on a number of occasions — as recently as Nov. 7, two days after Trump won — said they would not grant clemency to Hunter Biden.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor, said he agreed with the president’s rationale for the pardon — that Hunter Biden’s prosecution was politically motivated — but added, “I wish the president had not stated after the plea agreement fell through that he would not pardon Hunter Biden.”
“It is discouraging that he has now gone back on his word on that,” he added in an interview on CNN.
Though it is rare for Democrats to so openly criticize a president from their party, there is little downside in doing so now. President Biden, an unpopular president, is on his way out of office — after being pushed aside by his party and forced to abandon a reelection bid this summer.
Those in competitive districts could even win points by so publicly bashing the move. Indeed, some criticism came from swing-district Democrats like Landsman and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) — who posted that “no family should be above the law.”
A handful of Democrats, to be sure, defended Biden’s decision, arguing the action is justifiable in the context of what might be coming from Trump. Biden feared Trump would continue to go after Hunter, the White House said Monday.
Some also brushed aside GOP criticism, pointing out the scores of charges Trump faced in the lead-up to Election Day.
“Way to go, Joe,” said Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), a member of the Oversight Committee. “Let me be the first one to congratulate the president for deciding to do this, because at the end of the day, we know that we have a 34-count convicted felon that is about to walk into the White House.”
“So for anyone that wants to clutch their pearls now, because he decided that he was going to pardon his son, I would say take a look in the mirror,” she added.
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) said Monday on CNN he had “mixed feelings” about the pardon.
“I think there’s a legitimate concern about what that could lead to, and I think that’s part of why the president put in a 10-year stretch for the pardon term, because that should protect him against anything, really up to statute of limitations, basically, for most offenses,” Ivey said. But, he added, “A pardon at this point will be used against, I think, Democrats who were pushing to defend the Department of Justice against politicizing it, which is certainly what President Trump plans to do.”
Trump has already been using the pardon to boost his claims of corruption in the Department of Justice, reacting to the news by bringing up those in prison over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that was fueled by Trump’s denial of the 2020 election.
“Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trump’s campaign also blasted out an email to fundraise off the news, utilizing the exact kind of argument that Democrats feared: “Joe Biden weaponized the DOJ against President Trump, and now he wants to give Hunter Biden the sweet heart deal of the century.”
While President Biden’s pardoning of his son shook Washington, the sheer act — a president granting clemency to a family member — was not unprecedented. Hunter Biden joins a list of presidential relatives who were pardoned by the president.
Connolly noted that Trump selected Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to be ambassador to France. Trump in his last term had pardoned the elder Kushner, who in 2005 was sentenced to two years in prison over tax evasion, illegal campaign donation and witness tampering charges.
And former President Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton, for a cocaine possession conviction.
But this instance comes after years of Democrats insisting they were the party that was respectful of the law enforcement apparatus and Justice Department, juxtaposing their behavior with that of Trump, who faced four criminal cases and was found guilty of 34 felony counts in one of them. Throughout Trump’s legal entanglements — which the president-elect criticized at every juncture — Democrats sought to restore trust in the institutions.
President Biden’s pardon, some Democrats say, runs counter to that mission. The president’s statement argued that Hunter Biden “was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong.”
“The Hunter Biden pardon was a mistake,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) wrote on X. “I sympathize with a father’s love, especially in a family that has experienced so much personal tragedy. I also understand the legal arguments in favor of a pardon. But Presidential pardons are never judged solely on the merits of the case, particularly when it involves a family member.”
“Presidents hold enormous power and responsibility and must be held to a higher standard,” he added. “They must instill trust and promote the American people’s faith in their democracy. And right now, upholding the fabric of our democracy is one of our most important tasks.”
