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Is This Why Joe Biden Pardoned Hunter?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 02, 2024 6:30 PM

On Sunday night, President Joe Biden made an announcement that he was pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, despite previous and repeated claims from the White House that he would do no such thing. There's been plenty of reaction, as Townhall has been covering, with even Democrats speaking out against such a pardon. Biden, a lame duck president, already has particularly low approval ratings, and it doesn't look like they're getting any better, especially after such a pardon.

Last week, there was a slew of post-election polls, including from CBS News/YouGov, Emerson College, The Economist/YouGov, and Gallup. As we noted when covering them, such polls show Biden looking at rather low approval ratings, among his worst, in fact. The Emerson poll for November, shortly after President-elect Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris, had Biden at his lowest approval rating, of 36 percent. Gallup had him close to it, with a 37 percent approval rating. In the Gallup poll, only President Jimmy Carter, another failed, one-term president, dropped more in his approval rating from October before the election to November.

RealClearPolling, as of December 1, has Biden's approval rating at an average of 40.5 percent, while 55.8 percent. The most recent poll included is from Rasmussen Reports, which actually is on the kinder side to Biden, despite being a right-leaning poll. Looking at their daily tracker for December 2, Biden actually has a 46-53 percent approval/disapproval rating. 

Do Biden's approval ratings have to do with his pardoning of Hunter? Cygnal President Brent Buchanan thinks so. In his daily takes for Monday, Buchanan referenced the exclusive reporting on the pardon from NBC News. 

"Biden's pardon proves he knows the nation has already moved on from his presidency," read the subject line for the day's daily takes, with Buchanan pointing out, "Why not?" As he also noted as part of his take, "The last deeply disliked Democratic president (FYI: Carter) restored Confederate President Jefferson Davis' full citizen rights, so why wouldn't Biden--potentially more disliked--pardon his criminal son?"

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Just like Biden, Carter only served one term. He lost reelection to President Ronald Reagan in a catastrophic fashion for the 1980 election, whereas Biden's fellow Democrats forced him out of the race in something of a coup back in late July, less than one month after his disastrous debate performance against Trump. Carter, did, however, face a primary challenge by then Sen. Ted Kennedy. 

Gallup's monitored presidential approval ratings for several years, going back to President Harry S. Truman. Sure enough, Carter was the only Democratic president with a lower approval rating at the end of his term, 34 percent in December of 1980, compared to Biden's current 37 percent approval rating for November 2024. 

Even when it looked like Biden was still going to be the Democratic nominee, and would likely face Trump in a rematch, there were still concerns about his candidacy due to his approval rating. In July 2023, Biden was once more compared to Carter, the most unpopular president at that point in his term, while Biden was the second most unpopular. On July 18, 2023, FiveThirtyEight showed Biden with a net approval rating of -16.3 percent. In his Yahoo! News article at the time, Andrew Romano pointed out that that number is "really bad historically speaking."

Bringing us back to the present,. FiveThirtyEight now has Biden with a +19 disapproval rating for November 27, with 37.7 percent disapproving of his job performance and 56.7 percent disapproving of his job performance.

Will Biden pardoning his son further drag his approval rating down? CNN's Scott Jennings certainly thinks so. As we covered earlier on Monday, he went on the network this morning to tear Biden apart for such a move, as well as those Democrats who defend him. Biden and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is still pushing such a lie, are "a disgrace" as Jennings put it, with Biden "draining" his credibility, Jean-Pierre's credibility, and any others who defend such a move.

Jennings also specifically referenced how Biden is in the 38-39 percent approval rating range. "He is going to leave office--you think 38-39 percent job approval is bad? Just you wait. Just you wait," Jennings warned, speaking about Biden's already low approval ratings. "He's disgraced."

Biden still has about a month and a half until he leaves office and Trump is inaugurated for his second term. Here's hoping there's another poll out to prove Buchanan and Jennings correct.