The decision, which was first reported by NBC News, is a reversal for the president, who repeatedly said he would not use his authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence.

Summary

President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, reversing his prior stance against using executive clemency.

The pardon covers Hunter’s federal gun conviction and tax evasion guilty plea, sparking political controversy.

Biden cited political attacks and a “miscarriage of justice” as reasons for his decision, emphasizing his son’s recovery from addiction and the targeting of his family.

Critics argue the move undermines the judicial process, while supporters view it as within Biden’s constitutional powers.

This decision shields Hunter from potential prison time as Biden nears the end of his presidency.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1618·
    2 days ago

    Side note - it’s funny to watch how quickly leftists are descending into maga-like craziness defending this obvious abuse of power.

    “Trump did worse” is not a principle.

    • AreaSIX @lemm.ee
      133·
      2 days ago

      What ‘leftist’ supports Biden?! The political compass in the US is… Special I guess? There’s no ‘left’ on the mainstream political spectrum in the US as far as I can see. Libs are not leftists by any standard in any country outside of the US. The Dems are to the right of the right coalition in charge of my country right now.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      2 days ago

      it’s funny to watch how quickly leftists are descending into maga-like craziness

      Well, we just saw lawless, violent MAGA gain total control of our federal government by lying and cheating.

      So that’s the standard now. Americans voted to prove so. We’re just adapting to our environment.

      I hope we lie, cheat, and steal to the max in the next election (if there is one), so we can gain total control using the same tactics. Because those are the tactics that work in America.

        • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          Nah. I just want the party that has a history of voting in favor of working class Americans and being better for our economy to do what they need to do to get elected in America. Which is lie, cheat, and steal.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      “Trump did worse” is not a principle.

      Thank you! It’s been so aggravating, it’s like they are unable to defend Biden’s awful policies without saying Trump’s name.

    • Affidavit@lemm.ee
      73·
      2 days ago

      25 comments in and I haven’t seen a single person defend this blatant corruption.

      • Slueth@lemmyusa.com
        82·
        2 days ago

        @Yodan@lemm.ee

        I can’t stand this “not a good look” talk when democrats have to basically be squeaky cleak that they can’t even own a peanut farm or swear and yet 10 years into the “grab them by the pussy” guy who makes fun of disabled people, women, calls everyone names including his own party… Nobody bats an eyelash. I don’t care if Joe Biden lied for his son at this point, Donald pardoned and will continue to pardon dozens of family and staff and insurrectionists. It’s ok for Trump to lie about not knowing project 2025 and then immediately hire everyone involved with it days later… But Biden can’t lie once. Got it.

        @slickgoat@lemmy.world

        Trump’s entire stchick is gaming every system to manipulate things in his favour. The Dems always take the higher ground and always get pounded. Every single time - Gore in 2000, particularly.

        If Biden ‘pardons’ his son to ameliorate Hunter’s political persecution, then it’s a step in the right direction to push back. Tame as it is, the Dems better learn to fight fire with napalm before all is lost.

        @Wrench@lemmy.world

        A lot of people here missing the point. We don’t care about this because Hunter was the target of a witch hunt. The actual “crimes” weren’t impactful at all. The Republicans literally spent 8 years dragging him through the mud, digging for anything that he could be charged with, just because who his dad is. And Hunter didn’t even touch politics in the slightest.

        …

        The gun charge is the moral equivalent of crucifying someone for having pirated music on their hard drive. It was a nothing crime, never enforced, and the only reason it was in this case was because they happened to find something they could latch onto.

        …

        That’s why most of us don’t really care. The man is not important. He holds no position of power, nor has he expressed any intent to. He is not important, except as a whipping boy for their propaganda. And a pardon for such preposterous prosecution is fine with me.

        And that’s just a few from this post.

        • Affidavit@lemm.ee
          11·
          23 hours ago

          Thanks, but I’m not interested in reading a bunch of cherry-picked comments.

          I made no claim that none of the posts the OP was whining about existed, only implied that they were exaggerating as I didn’t see a single one while reading every single comment up until I reached OPs.

          • Slueth@lemmyusa.com
            2·
            7 hours ago

            The term “cherry-picked” isn’t applicable here since it implies I’m leaving out context or other information, but you already had context (the comments doing the opposite of defending), I simply showed you what you claimed to not see.

            • Affidavit@lemm.ee
              1·
              2 hours ago

              The term is applicable because unless you provided those comments in the order you viewed comments in this post (which was the claim of my initial comment), you specifically sought out comments with the bias you were looking for, disregarding comments that did not fit the narrative.

        • nomous@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          vote blue no matter who next election tho

          The left in the U.S. is a joke who’ll never get their shit together.