When he was once asked if he would pardon his son, President Joe Biden said no. It’s time for him to rethink that answer.
His successor wants to stack the DOJ with an AG loyalist who’s been investigated for sex trafficking plus three lawyers on the Trump family payroll.
Hunter Biden is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years on firearms charges, and a maximum of 17 years for tax charges. Does anybody think he could get a fair shake from the incoming Trump crowd?
Biden is not facing re-election, and it’s doubtful that Democrats will be punished as a party if he exercises his right as a president to pardon his only living son. If he doesn’t want to break his word “as a Biden,” a family motto he often invokes, he can take the road less traveled and commute his son’s sentence, which would allow Hunter to avoid any possible jail time.
The charges against him are wildly inflated, with sentencing scheduled in Delaware on Dec. 12 on three felonies related to his signing a form falsely attesting he wasn’t a drug user when purchasing a gun he never fired. The tax charges come to a head on Dec. 17 in a California court.
“I don’t think Biden is going to pardon Hunter,” says Jim Kessler with Third Way, a progressive centrist Democrat group. He speculates that Trump likes “showing he does things that are unprecedented.”
Trump campaigned on locking up “the Biden crime family.” At the same time, candidate Trump said in a radio interview in October when asked about a pardon for Hunter, “I wouldn’t take it off the books.”
“There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy,” Trump continued. “But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country.”
Biden would be crazy to trust Trump on anything, much less the fate of his son, but he could commute Hunter’s sentence rather than absolve him of any wrongdoing, which is what a pardon does.
Somewhat analogous, former President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s top aide, for revealing the identity of a top CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Bush’s eventual successor, Donald Trump, issued the pardon.
When pressed on what’s in it for Trump to pardon Hunter, other than to pull off another great plot twist, Kessler responded in an email that “he wouldn’t be doing it to demonstrate he’s a better man than we thought, able to rise above political differences…but to give him license to commit outlandish abuses in our criminal justice system.”
In other words, he can do the unexpected and the unthinkable—and that’s Trump.
Contrast that with the quiet resignation of Biden as he ends his presidency and his 50-year political career. He is doing what he can to bolster Ukraine, finally signing off on the use of U.S.-provided missiles and drones inside Russia, an escalatory move he had long resisted. Taking the step now is betting that Putin will not retaliate knowing help is on the way with Trump in the Oval Office.
Securing climate projects authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act are another priority, including tax credits for consumers who want to purchase electric vehicles. You would think Elon Musk, Trump’s favored sidekick, would want to keep those tax credits, but you would be wrong. Turns out Tesla doesn’t rely on them as much as the Detroit-made EVs, so Musk is eager to end them.
Getting money out the door that’s been appropriated before Trump’s people can get their hands on it is a priority. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $3.4 billion in grants to improve passenger rail service and support the manufacture of sustainable transportation materials. The EPA and Energy Departments followed up with similar targeted grants that might not otherwise survive.
The explosion of money going out the door is not unusual when there is a change in power, but never has there been such a contrast with an incoming administration calling climate change a hoax.
Revving up his party to confirm a parade of judges awaiting committee votes and hearings in the Senate is another Biden priority. When Trump first took office in 2017, he boasted that his predecessor, President Barack Obama, had left him a gift of 100 judicial vacancies. A Republican Senate had stymied Obama’s judicial picks, allowing Trump in concert with Senate leader Mitch McConnell to stack the judiciary with young conservative jurists ready to serve for decades.
Biden made confirming judges a priority, so there are far fewer vacancies this time for Trump to fill—43 at last count. But with a Republican president and Republican senate, this is it for the Democrats. They better take full advantage of every moment, which brings us to where we are now as we approach the final days of the Biden administration.
With the clock running out, we could use more urgency around Biden’s priorities. It’s as though he’s given marching orders to his staff to show what a nice guy he is, welcoming Trump back to the White House.
We get it. Biden is an institutionalist who respects the will of the voters. We do too, but he’s still leading a country where half the voters are fearful of what the new administration will do when it comes to weaponizing government departments and agencies to carry out its vision of American greatness.
Changing administrations is about more than modeling good behavior on the way out the door. There is more Biden could and should be doing, and there’s still time.
