EDITORIAL: Biden’s hypocrisy undermines his legacy

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U.S. President Joe Biden has irreparably damaged his political legacy by pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, from convictions for illegal gun possession and tax fraud.

To be sure, one can be sympathetic to Biden, as a father, wanting to keep his 54-year-old son out of jail. He was to be sentenced on both crimes later this month.

Instead, Biden issued a sweeping presidential pardon that includes any crimes Hunter Biden, “committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014 to the end of this year.

Biden’s defenders argue president-elect Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of about 100 people in the final days of his first term as president.

They included Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, violating campaign financing laws and witness tampering in 2005.

Trump has now chosen Charles Kushner to be the U.S. ambassador to France when he becomes president.

He’s also described convicted leaders of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on Congress as “hostages,” suggesting he’ll pardon them.
But those arguments are irrelevant here.

Biden’s entire presidency was built around his claim he would restore democracy and the rule of law in America after the first Trump presidency.

Now we’re told he made his decision to pardon his son over Thanksgiving with his family, which flies in the face of his repeated denials that he would pardon his son, made throughout the presidential race where Trump defeated Biden’s vice-president, Kamala Harris.

On May 31, when Trump was convicted in his hush money trial, Biden tweeted on X, “No one is above the law.”

Given all this, Biden’s decision was, at best, blatant hypocrisy.

At worst it raises the question of whether he was lying when he made those statements and was simply waiting until after the election to announce his decision.

Ironically, Biden made the same argument as Trump in defending his decision — that the charges were political witch hunts

But even many Democrats aren’t buying that.

As Democratic Arizona Rep. Greg Stanton tweeted on ‘X’:” I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”