2mo ago

Pardon who? Hunter Biden case renews ethical debate over use and limits of peculiar presidential power

theconversation.com Pardon who? Hunter Biden case renews ethical debate over use and limits of peculiar presidential power

Despite the controversy surrounding them, presidential pardons can provide a service – the question is how they are used.

The decision by President Joe Biden to pardon his son, Hunter, despite previously suggesting he would not do so, has reopened debate over the use of the presidential pardon.

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Trump: Filling his cabinet with conflicted individuals and loyalists, many of whom have had legal troubles and been pardoned by him.
Biden: Pardons a family member who has never held government office for a drug-related offence.
And which story dominates the news cycle? The media is more than complicit in the resurgence of fascism in this country.
- Maybe I'm being inflammatory, but I think this move might have saved his son's life. I wouldn't be surprised if the next administration was planning to make an example of Hunter to show off their newly radicalized DOJ
  
  Agree, due to the politization of the case, its no longer about legality or justice. Its a safety issue now, I dont feel like this is an ethical pardon, but the country voted against ethics, so im not going to be mad at this.
  If Harris had won then it would have been a very different matter, but the upcoming DOJ apointees will likely be 47s attack dogs and the biden family cant afford have any lingering cases for them to exploit.
  
  Could have gotten epstiened I guess.
  
  100%. Allowing Hunter Biden to be in the custody of Trump's doj would be a national security risk.
- The media is more than complicit in the resurgence of fascism in this country.
  YUP.
- Thing that's been dominating the news cycle for weeks is momentarily less dominant than thing that happened just yesterday.
  Must be because people are so unfair to that troubled youth who just needed help, Hunter Biden. Has nothing to do with Joe Biden promising to use presidential powers to pardon the indigent, disproportionately-black group of people who went to jail for possessing weed and instead using the powers specifically for his 54 year old millionaire son.
  
  Biden already pardoned everyone convicted of possessing weed. The only "non-violent" cannabis offenders in federal prison are dealers.
  
  Just this year there have been 200,000 weed related arrests, and thousands imprisoned because simple possession is still illegal in lots of the US.
  
  And how many of those are federal arrests not state arrests?
  
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajherrington/2024/11/26/nonprofit-group-calls-on-biden-to-pardon-cannabis-prisoners/
  
  Federal or state/local?
  
  You could simply google it instead of asking and waiting for me to google it for you yknow.
  
  No you made the claim now it is your burden to source and prove it. Generally and federally not much is happening with weed even on the arrest side as we wait to try to decriminalize it. You can't pardon state crimes.
  
  This isn't a court of law and they weren't the person who I made the claim to. They can google it.
  
  LOL, like any of these papers give a fuck about pardoning weed prisoners. You're right that he should be pardoning more people, but the "debate" and "controversy" is entirely separate from that.
  
  These papers care about him promising not to do it then doing it anyways - that's also part of the controversy.
  
  A promise about an irrelevant thing is similarly irrelevant. This isn't pushing the bounds for presidential pardons or going to influence the future of politics or law enforcement at all. The media is deeply concerned about a trivial act that's both 100x less serious than the lies and pardons of his predecessor, those of past Democratic presidents, and his own prior deceptions and actions. It's centrist media clutching pearls for the precious "norms" and "optics" while everyone knows Trump has and will do worse in this very same department and that Biden himself has grave failures they're completely uninterested in. They want to pretend they're hard-nosed watchdogs of Both Sides without actually engaging in any truth-seeking that might upset people who will still hold power past January.
  
  Wow, this reads with so much hatred that it took me a few times to recognize the sarcasm. It's not even nuanced, it's just so angry-sounding and seemingly hate-filled that my emotions were louder than the actual words.
- If a nazi uses the n word...
  No one is surprised.
  When your only other option also uses it, that doesn't make it ok because they didn't mean to say it in public intentionally.
  When you settle for "a slip" and say that's ok, the only thing you're doing is making it easier for people to act like the nazi isn't that bad. Because you've normalized it
  If Biden wants to "take the low road" then fucking take it and do some good for the American people. Don't do it only for purely selfish reasons.
  That is why people are upset with Biden about this
  It's like saying it's ok to steal food for your starving family to justify stealing, then you just eat all the food yourself.
  There's a lot Biden can do to help Americans still, he just doesn't give a fuck.
  
  I don't care about this pardon because it's a crime around bullshit that affects nobody, and has only gone the way it has due to political nonsense. The vast majority of drug offenses are similar.
  I disagree with Trump's pardons because he has literally surrounded himself with career criminals, asked them to do criminal things, and pardoned them when they got in trouble for it.
  Only one of these two is institutionalized corruption.
  
  Sounds like a trump supporter arguing gun laws need revoked....
  Like, you realize he wasn't charged for smoking crack.
  He had charges for buying a gun while on crack, trying to throw it away by a school. And then it not being there when going back to get it.
  The vast majority of drug offenses are similar.
  The vast amount of cannabis probably. But not Crackheads.
  Do you honestly believe habitual crack use that results in multiple trips to rehab isn't a reason for someone to not be able to possess a gun?
  I honestly wouldn't be surprised, just holding out hope for the party for some stupid reason.
  What I've been seeing today tho, Dems have gone full trump and will excuse anything and always say they're party had a reason for personal corruption and not helping the public
  
  You are a prime case for Biden derangement syndrome. Jfc
  
  That's a fair criticism of Biden, but Biden wasn't being criticized by that comment, rather the media coverage was. The media has consistently shrugged their shoulders and acted like nothing was wrong as Trump time and time again utterly violates both conventions and laws, but the moment anyone not in the MAGA-sphere puts even a toe out of line it's treated as a huge scandal. Should Joe have pardoned Hunter? No it undermines the entire message of nobody is above the law, but at the same time it's such a trivial thing in the face of the absolute and complete disregard of both morals and laws shown by Trump and his team daily.
  In the face of such blatant double standards the media's rush to clutch their pearls in this case just rings as exceptionally hollow.
  
  I disagree that he shouldn’t have pardoned Hunter. Hunter went through the legal system with no advantages, reached a plea deal that was perfectly normal for any regular citizen, only to have Republicans blow it up to have something to beat Joe over the head with. Hunter has paid his late taxes with fines. The only remaining issue was him lying on his form about being on drugs while buying a gun. They were going to throw him under the prison for that dumb shit.
  But yeah, Joe needs to go on a pardon spree. Trump established that new norm last time.
  
  Should Joe have pardoned Hunter? No it undermines the entire message of nobody is above the law
  I disagree. Hunter's prosecution was political in nature. Anyone else accused of the same crimes would not have faced even close to what he did. If it were anyone else I would still want Biden to pardon him.
  
  I am honestly completely indifferent to Biden pardoning Hunter. My beef is with the media. This impacts the life of 1 person: Hunter Biden. They're giving it wall to wall coverage because it's drama and they're reality TV calling themselves journalists.
  
  My beef is with the media. This impacts the life of 1 person: Hunter Biden
  My beef is with Biden, because even if the only thing he can do is pardon people, Hunter ain't the only one trump will go after
  You telling me Hunter needs protected more than Fauci?
  Even if so, why isn't Biden pardoning the other people as well
  The issue is Biden isn't doing more, same issue as the last four years
  
  While he's at it can he give me a pardon as well? Never know trump might be upset with what we say here. /s
  
  This is very much not a trending story in the media because they want more pardons or more extreme action. It may be why you're upset, but you're interjecting yourself in an entirely less ideological fabricated controversy. It's a "tsk, tsk, the norms" response.
  
  All that Americans have left, on both sides I might add, is the desire to see the other side suffer. Republicans have been doing this for a while. The Trump presidency will disenfranchise the Democrats to the same level, evening the playing field.
  This is where America is at now. Just angry people with nothing left but to hurt some scapegoats.
  The only question is is this a race to the bottom (bottom being a civil war killing millions), or will the public wake the fuck up?
  
  on both sides
  Really? What Democratic politicians are setting out to try to harm people? And what specific policies?
  
  People really just want their team to hurt or piss off the other side.
  It really ain't gonna be long till both sides are firmly "us/them" and the rich will keep making the poor's fight each other.
  It's fucking embarrassing

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