Tipsheet

Biden's Statement About His Pardon of Hunter Is Jaw-Dropping

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 02, 2024 6:50 AM

He couldn’t be serious with this statement. It’s a shameful explanation, an exercise in gaslighting, and a wad of phlegm spit simultaneously in the face of voters. It’s a ‘hawk tuah’ moment that is beyond comprehension. The pardon of Hunter Biden has self-immolated liberal America in more ways than one. For starters, it shows what happens when you try to take the moral high ground and exude a snobbish attitude as such: you become Icarus, soaring too close to the sun. 

It's bad that the president pardoned his son when he and his staff have said repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that this wouldn’t be an option. To issue an explainer is just another way to insult the voters’ intelligence, a move that partially cost Democrats the 2024 election. Tens of millions were struggling, and when they voiced those concerns, they were mocked and dismissed by Joe Biden, the Democrats, and the media, who all adopted a ‘look at this chart; you’re wrong’ response. It’s no different here: 

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. 

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases. 

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. 

For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision. 

I will follow the law until that chaos engulfs my family through their own fault. In other words, rules for thee but not for me. This act is Clinton-esque regarding abiding by a separate set of rules. To that end, it paves the way for President-elect Donald J. Trump to pardon himself, every January 6 defendant, and host of other people, thanks to Biden. 

So, while this chapter of the Biden legal saga reaches an ignominious end, let’s declare that we’ve known for years: Hunter Biden is a criminal and a disgrace and was guilty of all charges lobbed against him.