5mo ago

Republicans fume after President Joe Biden pardons his son Hunter

www.nbcnews.com

Summary

President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, prompting strong backlash from Republicans.

GOP lawmakers criticized the move as an abuse of power and an attempt to avoid accountability, with figures like Rep. James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley calling it hypocritical and corrupt.

Biden defended the pardon, citing “selective prosecution” and claiming Hunter was unfairly targeted due to their family connection.

Hunter faced convictions for federal gun and tax charges.

140 comments

- Prospect? Trump handed out pardons like candy to far worse people who happened to aligned with his politics. After 8 years of seeing Trump rat-fuck norms and laws and precedent and unjustly go after his family and get away with everything, while everyone else tries to play by the rules, Biden is probably asking himself why he has to let his son risk prison when he knows everyone in the incoming administration wouldn't even give a second thought to pardoning.
  I don't support it, but I get it. This is the kind of shit America voted for, right?
  
  Haven't seen this linked yet so I'll leave it here: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-joseph-biden-2021-present - (25 pardons, 26 pardons including Hunter) https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021 - (144 pardons)
  (Got distracted counting Trumps pardons, may be off by a few)
  
  Yeah the choice for President was between cop and felon. The majority polled against equal application of the rule of law. Biden is just respecting the voters' wishes.
- Roger Stone, Steve Banon, Dinesh D'Souza all sorts of other crony based pardons were already done in Trumps last term.
  Your Pearl Clutching the inevitable (as of it will now be Bidens fault) is ridiculous, and out of line.
  
  The Democrats can be better sure. But no one cares unfortunately. They re elected someone far worse.
  Worse, Republicans were already hypocritically obsessed with Hunter. With them preparing to fascisticaly weaponize the DOJ. He would have been one of the first and worst targeted by them. I don't blame or hold pardoning him against Joe Biden. It won't stop the fascists ultimately. But it will make him less of an easy target.
  Democrats spent the last 4 years worrying about optics. And they have nothing to show for it.
  
  Democrats spent the last 4 years worrying about optics. And they have nothing to show for it.
  And even if "optics" was super important, this is going to have zero optical effect. Some frankly bizarre pearl clutching now, but no elections are coming and only total fucking morons think this is somehow going to ease Trump doing worse things. No one is going to give a single shit in two or four years when Trump is pardoning Jared Kushner for personally helping Mohammed bin Salman torture and murder some dissidents.
  
  I'm fuckin glad he did it.
  
  I want to see more. We put all our hope into this party and they have yet to even throw a punch. Make a mistake so big it forces the political climate to shift, please already.
  
  Lololol no.
  
  Nobody cares if the "Dems should and could be better than the GOP"... We literally are demanding our Dem reps fight against this for us, and thus far, they refused. And still do. This is Biden just looking after Biden, which, frankly, is par for the course in US politics.
- Prospect? Where have you been? Did you miss when Trump pardoned Jared Kushner's father?
  Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner [Jared Kushner's father] discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
  Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.
  In fact, this man who "pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering" has now been nominated to be Ambassador to France by Trump. There is no "prospect of Republicans doing the same thing in four years." They've been doing it for the last 40+ years already. You just haven't been paying attention.
  It's about time the Democrats got of their damn high horse and got down in the mud and started fighting like they mean it.
- Don Jr did cocaine in public at the recent Space X launch and not a peep out of the mainstream media, much less police.
  If a policeman saw a black man outside a night club do what Don Jr did, he would have been arrested on the spot and immediately thrown in jail.
- Did you forget Trump pardoning several war criminals and others in his cabinet who directly worked with foreign adverse governments?
  
  that the Republicans will blow it out of proportions and use it to excuse themselves for corruption and treason.
  They will do this regardless of what their opponent does.
  
  The Reich Wingers never needed an excuse for corruption so far. What makes you think they need one now?
  
  The fact you'd compare Hunter's case that was wholly nonviolent, to an attempted violent coup makes me wonder if you're just sealioning here....
- The Reich Wingers already did this exact thing, in Trump's last term.
- whataboutism
  And those "small fries" were illegally buying a firearm and skirting $1,400,000 in federal taxes.
  And I thought we were the guys who wanted stronger gun control and the rich to pay their taxes?? Does that go out the window when it's one of "ours"?
  
  I’m not saying I agree with the decision, but as Biden, would you really want your son somewhere Trump could immediately fuck with him as soon as he wanted? Had Kamala won this would absolutely be a dumbass decision. With Trump incoming… I get it.
  
  Who cares about what happens to Hunter "10% for The Big Guy" Biden? Maybe I'm just some poor peon who doesn't understand how the ultra-wealthy are, but "lying during a gun purchase and not paying $1,400,000 in federal taxes" seem like pretty avoidable crimes to me.
  This is such an awful thing for Biden to do. The "both sides" folk are going to have a time with this for the next four years and they'll be absolutely right in this case.
  
  “10% for the big guy”
  With that one phrase you’ve gone FULL mask off lmao. You are the epitome of “both sides r the same”.
  
  Yep that's a mask off to reveal the trumptard face moment. Trump supporters are garbage and we will remember who is one for quite some time.
  Personally I'm boycotting any business with visible Trump support, and I make it a point to tell their staff that I won't be back and the reason why. Last time I had to do this I told them their Trump shit was fucking disgusting and I would never be back.
  
  I'm of the, apparently wildly fascistic, opinion that vice presidents' sons shouldn't sell off their father's influence to foreign nationals.
  
  But Trump placing his son in law, sons, and daughter into White House positions and using their fathers influence to obtain backroom deals with the Chinese government (ivanka) and securing a $3 billion loan from the Saudi royal family (Jared Kushner) is different right? 🤡
  The problem with you and other ghouls like you is that your game doesn’t work when talking to people who have paid attention to events in the last 8 years. Not everyone is as willing to suspend facts as you are.
  
  Absolutely right?
  Dems did it once, Republicans live in this shit.
  
  See: "whataboutism"
  
  Based on how those crimes have been enforced, yes. The federal gun charge that says a drug addict cannot own a gun is rarely enforced historically and is being challenged in the courts by Republicans because the DOJ started using it against white supremacists. Yet Hunter Biden wasn't even allowed a plea deal because of the politics around him. As for the taxes, when he was caught, he paid them and the fines associated with them. For literally anyone else caught doing the same, that is the end of it. No jail time or further penalties.
  Joe Biden tried to let the courts do their job and trusted that the courts would be fair. They weren't. This was clearly a political prosecution and I would have done the same in (Joe) Biden's shoes.
  
  The federal gun charge that says a drug addict cannot own a gun is rarely enforced historically
  And yet it's still a felony. I thought we were the ones who support strong gun regulation?
  wasn’t even allowed a plea deal
  No one is entitled to a plea deal. For the severity of Hunter's crimes, I'm fine with it.
  As for the taxes, when he was caught, he paid them
  Keyphrase: "When he was caught." He was just fine stealing the $1.4m from Americans otherwise.
  Joe Biden tried to let the courts do their job and trusted that the courts would be fair. They weren’t.
  That's not how it works and you know this is going to literally be Trump's argument on Day One when he starts pardoning his supporters, right?
  
  "the severity of hunters crimes"
  I fucking loled
  
  I thought we were the ones who support strong gun regulation?
  Who is "we"? I want all of the working class to be armed.
  "Under no pretext shall arms and ammunition be surrendered, and any attempt to do so should be frustrated, by force, if necessary" - Karl Marx
  "The rifle on the wall of the workingman's cottage is proof liberty exists. Our job is to ensure it remains." - George Orwell
  (I may have butchered the quotes a bit, but the meaning is intact)
  
  Compared to the shit Flynn, Manafort, Stone, etc were doing? Yeah, small fry.
  
  "Illegally buying a firearm"... My brother in christ, I literally know 10 people who did the exact same thing, because cannabis is legal in my state, and they lied on the 4473 to pass the background check.

140 comments