As Democrats, we are deeply disappointed in President Joe Biden’s decision to offer a full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter, who was convicted on multiple tax and gun charges.
To be clear, we do not deny the president’s absolute right to pardon anyone – including his son – nor do we necessarily dispute the president’s logic, but there are a number of reasons we, and many other Democrats, feel this way.
Politically, as the nation’s highest ranking official, what President Biden did undercut the Democratic Party, as well as Democrats’ objections to what President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are planning to do with the federal government.
What do we mean by this?
On the most basic level, Democrats have long maintained that Trump and Republicans have undermined the rule of law, both during Trump’s first term and thereafter.
Indeed, the alleged threats Donald Trump poses to democracy were a large part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsuccessful campaign for president.
And while voters clearly did not consider this a make-or-break issue, this argument does have great appeal to those who support and want to strengthen our democratic institutions.
President Biden has now significantly weakened that argument, in no small part because it also broke the president’s own repeated vows that he would not pardon his son.
Moreover, by reinforcing the idea that there are two standards of justice, one for the president’s son and one for everyone else, Biden has also given credibility to Trump’s claims of a politicized justice system, further weakening Americans’ trust.
Put another way, Biden’s pardoning of his son puts the lie to claims that Democrats stand above Republicans in their commitment to the rule of law and being honest with the American people.
To that end, this decision was unpopular even among President Biden’s own party. Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis criticized it, saying, ‘This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his (Biden’s) reputation.’
Similarly, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett argued that ‘it further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,’ while fellow Democratic Senator Gary Peters called the pardon ‘an improper use of power.’
That being said, this is more than just an argument over the impact of Biden’s actions or the differences between how the two parties approach our democratic institutions.
It fundamentally hampers the ability of the Democratic Party to attack the way the President-elect is approaching his second term.
For example, it is now hard for Democrats to argue against Trump’s plans to appoint controversial nominees to his cabinet via recess appointments when a Democratic president just undermined the fabric of our democracy with a full and unconditional pardon of his son, who was duly convicted on a dozen criminal charges.
It would have been much easier, and we dare say defensible, had Biden commuted his son’s sentence by dent of Hunter’s addiction and historical precedent. There was a basis to do this.
We are not sure this would have received widespread support. But it likely would not have received the same pushback as a full pardon for crimes Hunter committed over the span of a decade.
This strikes us as broad overreach and undermines the core of the Democratic argument.
What President Biden has basically just told the American people is that he can do what he wants, when he wants, even if he promised not to do it.
By using the president’s unlimited pardon power in an overtly personal way, Biden has signaled that Democrats’ supposed commitment to democratic values is situational, rather than a commitment to the rule of law however it may apply.
Let’s hope the Hunter Biden pardon recedes into history and President Biden does not continue to use the pardon power indiscriminately. However, if President Biden wanted to issue one more pardon, one suggestion which Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., offered, would be to pardon Donald Trump.
Of course, this would mostly be symbolic, as the cases involving Trump are in the process of being dismissed, but if Biden wants to heal rather than divide, this would be a good place to start.
Further, ending the cases involving the former and past president would put the country in a position to go forward and address more significant challenges such as an increasingly aggressive Russia-China-Iran axis, the Middle East, inflation here at home, and more.
This would also display a level of equality and parallelism that would suggest to the American people that our elected leaders are capable of cooperation and working in the country’s best interests, two qualities Americans deserve.
Robert Green is the principal at Pierrepont Consulting and Analytics LLC, bringing 30 years of experience in research-based messaging insight. During his career, Green has provided survey research guidance to numerous political campaigns.