Summary
President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, prompting strong backlash from Republicans.
GOP lawmakers criticized the move as an abuse of power and an attempt to avoid accountability, with figures like Rep. James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley calling it hypocritical and corrupt.
Biden defended the pardon, citing “selective prosecution” and claiming Hunter was unfairly targeted due to their family connection.
Hunter faced convictions for federal gun and tax charges.
I seriously think he should do a LOT of other shitty things Trump set the precedent for. Like perhaps seriously abuse that presidential pardon thing that Trump invented.
Like, I don’t know, I’m just brainstorming here, perhaps order the assassinations of the future president and all of the key people circling around him. And then just go all Jesse Pinkman, “yeah! presidential immunity bitch!”.
What do you mean by the presidential pardon thing that Trump invented?
EDIT: Also it really scares me how freely people discuss murder on Lemmy. Not just from a moral standpoint but also for you. I hope people consider the seriousness of these comments and that these comments can be used against you.
Literally, no sane person would care if Trump was killed for his crimes against the people of the US, or crimes against the people of the globe.
War sucks, and people die. He chose to wage war on the working class.
I’m just saying that it scares me that we are all being pushed to the extremes; that I’m worried about what that means for us as a society. I’m also just trying to point out that these kinds of comments could be used against you, especially with someone in charge that has talked about going after his enemies.
It doesn’t matter if it can be used against an enemy of Trump’s.
Even if it was never said, Trump will just make something up.
And if you are worried now… perhaps ypu should have listened to people sounding the alarms about it in 2007. Now, we are just reaching the end of the empire.
A lot of people would care. At least around 70 million at last count.
And, for this discussion, they don’t count. They would be mad at whatever Donald told them to mad about. Even if it’s just the two minute hate.
So you’re going to kill Donald Trump and tell 70 million people they aren’t allowed to be angry?
Good luck.
Never said kill all the MAGATts. I said they don’t count in the “outrage” performance.
You said nobody would care if Trump was killed and then said his voters don’t matter. That’s a bit ridiculous.
What do you mean by the presidential pardon thing that Trump invented?
“On July 1, 2024, the Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that presidents have absolute immunity for acts committed as president within their core constitutional purview, at least presumptive immunity for official acts within the outer perimeter of their official responsibility, and no immunity for unofficial acts”
You should also note how apparently all criminal cases against Trump were dropped when it became clear that he’s the next president, for instance https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/11/26/how-all-of-trumps-criminal-cases-fell-apart-as-jack-smith-drops-federal-charges/
Thanks for the detailed response! I thought it might be that supreme court decision but I wasn’t sure if I missed some other skullduggery.
Fuck 'em. Let them fume. This is the party that wants to let the terrorists from Jan 6 off with a pardon. The party that thinks donvict can do no wrong.
I’ll bet the Jan 6 pardons are quietly forgotten. They were a bunch of useful idiots who have already played their role and can be safely disposed of.
Only exception might be anyone who could be potentially squeezed for more information that might lead to more evidence against Trump, but even that’s probably a non-issue for him.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t pardon them.
Not only does he have a history of throwing basically everyone in the universe under the bus, but it’s his second term. He doesn’t have to please anyone now.
Free pardons for joining Trump Force, the Premier Private Deportation Group.
Offer only applicable to people with violent felony convictions or Jan 6th related charges
Good thing Joe is not a king right? What if a king assigned a rapist to be the FBI tzar. And what if this tzar could just walk through main street and rape men and women equally in plain daylight? Nobody would bat an eye because hold on, I’m getting rapped right now, but I’ll talk about it afterwards?
Aww fuck those one way princesses.
stay mad
libsrepubs 😎😎😎am i doing this right
everyone was mad
I think Biden should use his pardon power for good. I don’t have a huge problem with this, but I want him to do something unexpected. Biden should pardon all the married immigrants after his program was recently shot down in court. For those that don’t know, Many immigrants are married to US citizens, but cannot achieve citizenship that you normally would be able to do. It hinges on entering the country Illegally, which requires them to leave for up to 10 years before re applying for citizenship. Biden could pardon the “crime” of illegal entry, this removing the INS statue of not allowing them citizenship.
See the problem with that is. While the president can try to pardon unlawful entry, unlawful entry is a civil offense, meaning, you aren’t even entitled to a court appointed lawyer. So the supreme court might try to weigh in on pardons for civil offenses.
But even if the pardon is all legit and pass the supreme court, it doesn’t matter, in immigration law, all arrests, all convictions, any juvenile proceeding within the past 5 years, are all visible to USCIS and they are legally allowed to consider them when determining whether or not to allow someone to enter the US, whether or not to deport them, or whether or not to allow adjustment of legal status. Yes ALL records, even pardoned, even if sealed or expunged by court, they see everything. You can visit the USCIS website and see for yourself.
Edit: And oh, even if you are never arrested, but the FBI investigated you a few times, USCIS might have access to those and if the FBI agents wrote bad things on your file, you might have problems with immigration or naturalization. Yea its quite fucked up, but it is what it is.
I’m pretty sure this was part of their plan. It’s now legit cover for Trump to pardon whoever they want.
Plus yeah, they want to talk smack. It’s not like they have any worthwhile policy ideas.
I mean there’s something to be said for handing them some ammo.
Dominate a news cycle with some bullshit and do something shady under the table.
Jon Stewart outlined it pretty well.
The Dems put this artificial moral framework around themselves that limits how well they can compete with the Right, because it’s important
But as soon as they need something for themselves or their family they just break it.
They never break it for the people who need it most.
He already did that during his first term. This has nothing to do with Trump. It also doesn’t fucking matter. If people are mad about Hunter Biden owning a gun and doing cocaine, then why aren’t they mad about Don Jr doing literally exactly the same thing?
It doesn’t have anything to do with Trump. But that’s not to say he won’t take advantage of it.
They’re not mad at Don Jr because they don’t want to be. That’s all.
In a perfect world I’d say he needs to let the system work and nobody is above the law, yada yada yada. Clearly this world and country are horribly fucked. For YEARS Republicans have been using the term “Biden Family” to make them sound like some kind of crime syndicate, coming up with “ominous facts” that were not indicative of any actual crime, held an impeachment over President Bidens head for years, distributed naked pictures of Hunter, and interfered with what would’ve been a simple plea deal, all the while trying to downplay the most corrupt presidency in our history.
Fuck the norms. Fuck ethics. Fuck propriety. The new America requires you to use every tool at your disposal just to get your most basic fucking rights. If Republicans think this is such an abuse of power they can do their fucking jobs for once in their lives and pass some fucking ethics reform. I applaud Joe’s embrace of the new normal and I hope other Democrats figure out this is the new normal, whether they like it or not, and stop playing pussyfoot with a party that’s been playing “kick the groin” for over 30 years.
Everyone needs to play the same game they do.
Is it hypocritical, yeah probably, does he have any reason to answer for it? Naw
Trump just put Kusher in a role … a person he pardoned for … “preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC” per his own statement.
Right.
People voted this kind of behavior into office, repeatedly. Anyone clutching pearls right now can fuck off.
I sure as hell wouldn’t want my son at the mercy of Trumps DOJ.
Right?
Americans don’t get to complain about corruption anymore. We gleefully voted for corruption after it was shown to us in pretty much the most blatant way possible and given to us as a choice going forward.
It’s who we are now and we voted for it. Complaints will not be forwarded to management.
If you think that Trump’s DOJ is gonna respect pardons from a Democrat…
They’ll absolutely respect them as long as Trump Daddy is still selling them.
Who fucking cares. trump did far worse and kushner walked away with a couple billion and not one person in the government or media batted an eyelash. We’re in a post factual society.
Exactly. Honestly all the self-flagellation, finger wagging and purity tests over this are exactly why the Democrats have lost and the Republicans took power over the entire government.
Trump gave his son-in-law’s daddy a pardon for crimes that included trying to blackmail a witness against him in a criminal case by hiring a prostitute and recording their sex.
Trump pardoned the murderers responsible for a massacre in Iraq.
Trump pardoned Manafort and Stone and others who committed crimes to get Trump into office.
The majority of Trump’s pardons were people who are personally or politically connected to him. I guarantee we’ll see far worse in Trump’s next term no matter what Biden does.
So yeah Biden can and should pardon whoever the fuck he wants, especially to those people Trump has threatened retaliation.
Well said friend.
So two wrongs make a right I guess? Why shouldn’t we be holding all these people accountable?
In this specific case, because the hunter biden thing was political bullshit from the start. secondly though, the wrongs in question are nowhere near close to each other. third, hunters “crimes” were the typical presidential failson exploits I frankly don’t care that he excuses, perk of the job as far as I’m concerned. Getting your loser kid off the hook for drug and gun charges you know, not a coverup of the murder of a journalist for the bargain price of 2 billion dollars.
Biden had all the justification he needed when Trump indicated he’d target his political opponents if he won.
Anyone complaining about this can fuck off.
Yup. I’d do the same.
He should pardon himself for everything before he leaves office so Maga can’t drum up some stupid made up thing to tie up his last years.
Or resign so Kamala can in the last day if he can’t.
Use trumps political retribution statement as the reason.
Or resign so Kamala can in the last day if he can’t.
I want to see that just so all that 45+47 stuff refers to Kamala
He should pardon himself for everything before he leaves office
He doesn’t need to. Presidents have immunity for “official acts”. Womp womp.
I’d say he should and then when the courts rule he can’t, Trump’s self pardon won’t work either but that’s a pipe dream.
But bidens crime was being born, and there’s no statute of limitations on that one!
Gotta be honest. That’s just a really silly thing to say.
Many of the same liberals who have been browbeating me over the past several years with their insistence that they are NOT the same as the Trump Republicans, are excusing this.
You’re right, liberals. Once again you prove that you are not the same as the Trumpists. Even with this pardon, you do continue to be better than them. You’re better than terrible. You’re better than horrible, better than abysmal, ever so slightly better than abhorrent. Congratulations.
I saw an excellent analogy on here. The Republican Party is a dad molesting their kid. The Democrats are the mom turning a blind eye. One of those is objectively better than the other, but the kid should be seperated from both. Cheering for blatant political corruption is disgusting regardless of which side does it.
Who cares? Fuck them.
I would have felt better if Biden was more honest about this. “Yes, this is a blatant abuse of my power, and shouldn’t be allowed, but it is squarely within my Official Duties. The Supreme Court says that the only remedy is impeachment. Hey, Mike, I double-dog dare ya to do it!”
The only people allowed to be outraged on this are Democrats. The Republican party lost their right to be angry about this kinda stupid stuff shortly after they elected a rapist.
… and someone who did the exact same thing.
I’d argue he pardoned way worse people.
