It would have been nice if he could have used his presidential powers
to prevent the genocide...
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Or to change that stupid ATF form 4473 which basically requires anyone who smokes weed to either commit a felony by lying (checking the box for they don't use illegal drugs) or tell the truth (checking the box that they do) and being unable to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately the war on law abiding gun owners had to continue so on a few occasions their position continued to be that marijuana users should not be allowed to buy or own firearms.
Hypocrisy+++++
Oh right, Republicans went after his family and he still picked Garland as his AG.
Biden lied about not pardoning his son shocker. The guy is a lying scumbag.
Nice. Hopefully Biden keeps doing more good shit in his remaining few weeks while the MAGAt snowflakes are triggered and distracted by Hunter's dick again.
Biden knows they will come after himself but he's too old so they will slam the hammer on his son with the maximum force they can get out of it, this is a good way to thwart that political attack.
Also, someone should remind Trump that he handled firearms after he was convicted of a felony and was not prosecuted for that ...
Though I don't think the importance of that fact will dawn on Trump, he never felt rules applied to him.
Old rich guy who has never had to face consequences for any action coming to a realization? Sure.
If the republicans don’t like this, the democrats will happily support a supermajority legislature vote that starts limiting executive power.
....in 5, 4, 3, what? who cancelled the countdown? /s
Good decision. Trump and his gang promised all kinds of revenge. They don't play by the rules. So it makes sense to do whatever for your last son.
I think the issue a lot of us have with this is less that he's stooping to Trump's level, and more that he's only doing it to help his own family. Abusing the office of the president is apparently fine and good if its done on behalf of someone who's name is Biden, but the rest of the planet can get fucked.
I mostly agree. This is abuse of Presidential power so it is hypocritical for liberals to deny that... But, at the same time, if I were in Biden's situation I would likely do the same. And here is why:
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It is his son. His last son. Of course any loving father will do whatever they can to protect their son.
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Why should Democrats care what Republicans think? Democrats are getting curb stomped by fascists who give zero shit about the integrity of our institutions or abuse of political power. They truly don't. People voted for a pedophile felon traitorous oligarch. If you agree to an honorable sparring match of fisty-cuffs and your opponent pulls out a glock and shoots you in the knees and the crowd cheers for the cheater, do you have any moral or pragmatic reason to keep playing by the rules? No.
Is he though? Isn't one of the purposes of presidential pardons to protect a person from unjust political persecution. If Republicans weren't Trump's party I would agree it's nepotism, but it is Trump's party who will be in power. Trump has vowed to seek revenge on his opponents. Joe Biden is too old to really be punished as much as the Republicans want him to be, but Hunter Biden has many years left. MAGA Republicans could punish him for their hate of his father for at least four years, if not the rest of his life. Isn't that one of the purposes of a presidential pardon?
I mean… there’s another read on this whole thing, too: “huh, I guess everyone voted for nepotism and insider deals, so why the fuck not, especially in this context?”
Biden’s just giving the electorate a preview of what they voted for.
Agreed. If Hunter Biden’s issues hadn’t been politically weaponized so much, I doubt Biden would have done it, but the truth is, with Trump coming in to office and threatening retaliation, it makes sense to pardon him.
The crimes Hunter was charged with are rarely enforced and rarely involve jail time. The Republican's made this a political circus that would have certainly had Hunter doing time. If it wasn't for that, Joe would not have needed to pardon him.
Good decision. Trump and his gang promised all kinds of revenge. They don’t play by the rules. So it makes sense to do whatever for your last son.
I would hope those that oppose Trump do not just adopt all his behaviors.
I mean I fucking hate Biden's guts but it literally makes no sense to leave his son at the victim of Trump. Whatever Hunter was getting was never going to be justice either way.
This shows that none of the 2 parties believe that the democratic system in the USA works anymore.
Which means, it's dead now.
Yes, it is. So the Democrats, and anyone else who wants to try and resurrect it, need to get off their asses and start fighting dirty to rebuild it. The Republicans have been fighting to tear it down for more than 40 years using endless dirty tricks. Time to fight fire with fire. We cannot save democracy with sternly worded letters.
It’s been dead for a little bit
Fight fire with fire, if you keep going high the other party will realize it means they can go low and you'll never do anything about it.
didn't we, i of course mean the people who showed up, vote for this very kind of behaviour in the last presidential election? what's sauce for the goose...
ITT: people who ignored the persecution Hunter has faced and are judging this on only an extremely shallow level
ITT a couple instances acting exactly how you'd expect those people to act.
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I think he's concerned Trumps DOJ is going to come after them. Still super shady. But that'd be my guess as to why he did it, beyond the whole, he's my kid thing.
Should be illegal to pardon family members honestly. If there was ever an easy example of a conflict of interest, this is one.
So what? Maybe it should be but it isn't. The Constitution places virtually no limitation on the Presidents ability to offer clemency and no one in the last 250 years or so has seen fit to amend the constitution to change that despite the fact that the Republicans have been abusing the power of the pardon since at least the Reagan years. Now you are complaining because a Democratic President has used it *appropriately *to pardon someone who was convicted in a politically motivated circus?
You mean like Ivanka's father-in-law who Trump pardoned and named ambassador to France?
Exactly.
For Biden, it was the most difficult decision of his presidency. For Trump, it was Tuesday.
Yep, absolutely. Presidential powers should be used for the good of the country, not the good of your friends and family. There are many legitimate reasons to pardon people but them being related to you is not one of them.
A fair point but do you think Hunter would have been prosecuted to the same extent if he hadn't been related to Joe Biden?
However, it may work out better in the end for him that they went after him for ALL the crimes, because now he's pardoned for all of them and can't be tried for them again. We know Trump wants to go after Joe, but he'll have to come from a different direction.
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I'm not an American, and as such I don't think it's my thing to speak on so do not take this as an instructive comment, but I will reflect on it anyway. I believe that this was, on balance, a bad decision even if I understand it and can find good, honest reasons for Biden to do it. In the end, the POTUS has this power and is free to use it as the president wishes. I hope it will lead to something positive.
The fact that Trump has said that he might pardon Hunter and now is complaining about the fact that Biden did it himself shows once again how everything said by Donald is a convenient temporary truth. Even if this puts the light on Biden also being problematic with this behavior.
edit: a word
It's a poison pill for pardons. Either they are essentially absolute and irreversible, or they aren't and all of the ones Trump made and will make are up for debate. He can grumble all he wants but for Trump to call this pardon "such an abuse and miscarriage of justice" is absolutely laughable given the decade of insanity and illegal stuff coming out of his orange anus. The toilet photo of all the documents should have been enough to jail this man for life in a black site but I guess justice is a miscarriage after all.
Justice is the one abortion of which they approve.
Pardon all Trump prosecutors.
You can only pardon someone who was convicted of a crime. This was a topic with "general" Flynn, who Trump desperately wanted to prepardon so that they would stop digging into his obvious and blatant corrupt ties to foreign oligarchs. It will also probably be discussed again in relation to Tulsi and her ties to Russia.
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