The storm is rising.
Lost in the anger, frustration, bitterness, hopelessness, rhetoric and potential violence, as well as the existential angst of the last few weeks, is the reality that the recent election is an accurate reflection of who we are. It may not be who many of us want to be, but for more than 75 million Americans, it definitely is.
Those people support Donald Trump. Donald Trump is on a “revenge tour,” and his supporters are squealing with delight as he conducts it.
They look at Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter for his convicted crime, for others he may have committed, and perhaps also for those not committed or at least not charged, as a war against them — confirmation that Biden thinks he is above the law and Trump is a victim of a weaponized justice system and the “deep state.”
Incapable of nuanced thought, let alone any understanding of hypocrisy, millions who didn’t blink an eye when Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, or any of the other miscreants he pardoned at the end of his first term, are contorting themselves into fits of rage. Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to be suspiciously focused on nude pictures.
Democrats have gone after Biden as well. Pundits have jumped on board. Jeffrey Toobin, the disgraced CNN contributor who got caught in an act of self-flagellation during a video conference call, penned an opinion piece for the New York Times claiming that Biden had “dishonored” the presidency by pardoning his son. Others have called it an act of nepotism, evidence of the “Biden crime family” running amok, and so on. Soon they might get blamed for genital warts.
Let’s break it down. First, Toobin has no credibility and it is laughable for him to offer an opinion on “dishonor” — and it’s further evidence of the wooden ear and irrelevance of the New York Times that it decided to print such balderdash.
He never used it in any fashion, but was prosecuted for purchasing it.
The facts show that his situation — that is, lying on the form — is so common among gun buyers that they are almost never pursued by law enforcement for doing so. “The courts would be backed up by decades” if officials tried to prosecute that offense, a D.C. federal prosecutor told me.
But because of Hunter Biden’s last name, he was pursued, caught, charged, tried and convicted. Republicans wanted much more, of course, and tried to link him to all sorts of other crimes by way of a misplaced laptop that became a meme all by itself. That didn’t work, so they had to settle for the gun violation. That was odd, considering the GOP stance on guns, which amounts to “buy one get one free.” Perhaps even stranger was Marjorie Taylor Greene’s aforementioned obsession with displaying poster-sized photos of Hunter in various stages of undress on the floor of Congress. “She has an unhealthy and possibly sexual obsession with him,” an aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell told me with a straight face.
Earlier this year, President Biden said he wouldn’t pardon his son for the crime. Then the Democrats booted him from the presidential race and installed as a candidate the same vice president who, months earlier, party leaders had privately said should be removed from the ticket. We know how that turned out. Trump won and began nominating people like Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth to head up his administration and lead his all-expenses-paid revenge tour. You have to hand it to Trump for his diversity in hiring: billionaires, personal attorneys, sycophants and Fox News entertainers are all represented.
The vow to take down the Bidens, the deep state and the “fake news” media, along with all the screams about retribution from Trump’s nominees, sparked a change of heart in the president. So he protected his son by pardoning him.
Well, what father wouldn’t do that? Hell, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, who Chris Christie said had committed one of the most disgusting crimes he’d ever prosecuted. At least Biden didn’t nominate Hunter as the ambassador to France. Trump handed that job to the senior Kushner, a move widely believed to be a giant middle finger in the face of French President Emmanuel Macron, who Trump believes insulted him in 2019.
Biden opened himself up to charges of hypocrisy by pardoning his son after insisting he wouldn’t. Furthermore, he did it almost as an aside over a holiday weekend and did it so quietly it seemed like he had something to hide. Once again, Biden reminded us why he wasn’t the Democratic nominee this year — and why the Democrats lost the election.
They simply cannot communicate — and when they do, they screw it up royally.
Biden should have kept his mouth shut about his intention not to pardon Hunter. Then he should have said, “Damn right I’m pardoning him — and I’m pardoning everyone else who might be targeted in Trump’s revenge tour.”
According to at least one man, that wouldn’t have been enough. John W. Dean, Richard Nixon’s onetime White House counsel, who testified against his boss during the Watergate hearings, suggested Biden “should keep going,” posting on Bluesky that the president should pardon Trump himself, along with Jack Smith, Robert Mueller and a bunch of other people, thereby taking “the wind out of retribution/revenge.”
Biden should keep going with his pardons: Trump, Jack Smith & team, Mueller & team, and a blanket pardon for all on Trump’s enemies list for any and all political statements before December 25, 2024! Merry Christmas:-). Take the wind out of retribution/revenge!
— John W Dean (@johnwdean.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 9:37 PM
In a podcast appearance, Dean explained his idea further: By pardoning Trump, he said, “Biden gains the upper hand and takes away the argument that Trump will make — accusing Biden of weaponizing the DOJ against him.”
It’s kind of like doing a hard reboot of your computer: Unplug it, plug it back in and see if it works any better.
Furthermore, if Trump then decides to go after Biden or anyone else he “exposes himself as a real a**hole,” Dean continued. Personally, I think that’s already been proven, but to Dean’s point, nothing sells like repeating the message over and over again — just ask Trump.
Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, who campaigned extensively for Kamala Harris this year, takes a different view: He was among those unhappy with the pardon.
“Yes, I think it was wrong for Biden to pardon his son,” Walsh said. “But it’s way more wrong that we don’t hold Trump to any standard at all. Biden pardons his son and the world screams. Trump lies as he breathes, abuses the powers of his office, obstructs justice left and right, threatens to go after his political opponents, incites violence, tries to overthrow an election — his supporters cheer, and the rest of the world yawns. We treat Trump like a spoiled child.”
Commentator Charlie Sykes posted that someone texted him that Biden’s pardon was a huge mistake: “Joe Biden has just removed the issue of pardons from the political arena for the next four years and Trump probably once again can’t believe his own dumb f**king luck at this point.”
“Trump has always believed he’s above the law, and has always acted like he’s above the law,” said Walsh. “By pardoning Hunter, Joe Biden took that ‘no one is above the law’ card that we all pounded Trump with off the table, and handed Trump a big victory.”
As I see it, the Biden pardon is far more nuanced than that.
Logically, you may ask whether the ends justify the means. When filtered through that lens, and using the Constitution as your guide, then the answer is a resounding “no.” You’ll see the Biden pardon as a political figure putting his family above the law.
Thinking that way fails to understand the context. Donald Trump already jettisoned the Constitution in his last administration, the Supreme Court has given him unlimited immunity for all “official actions,” and our democracy no longer exists in practice. Viewed in that light, Biden’s actions simply underscore the fact we must all confront: Democracy is toast and we might be down to “every man for himself.”
Dean disagrees on that point. He believes our democracy has been weakened and is being tested by Trump, and we must move past him. Walsh too still has hope we can save our “fragile” democracy but says, “We have to hold Trump accountable.”
At the end of the day, no matter how much the Republicans lower the bar, Democrats cannot seem to crawl over it. John Adams was right about the dangers of political parties.
As the old curse has it, we are living in interesting times, made more interesting by Biden’s inability to connect with millions of Americans who — if spoken to plainly and directly — would probably empathize with his decision.
Biden’s pardon is entirely justified from the standpoint of straight-up survival. But very few of us are in position to be pardoned by our dad — a big reason for the anger. Still, don't think for a minute that Trump will look at the pardon and somehow be goaded into doing the same thing. He’s already done it. Biden didn’t give him free rein. Trump gave that to himself long ago. Biden is following Trump’s lead, not the other way around.
So while I think Joe Walsh is right, so is John Dean.
Want to make it more difficult for Trump? OK then: Pardon everybody, including him. Let’s start over. Hit the reset button. Call it a draw. Give democracy a chance.
As Dean pointed out, the American people have already pardoned Trump when they elected him as president a second time. So let’s make it official and find out what Trump does in response. That will certainly make things interesting — including the midterm elections.
Still, I doubt Biden will do it.
Democrats may have poor communication skills, but they’re even worse at playing political chess. They’re so bad at it that a man convicted of multiple felonies is beating them, by playing checkers.
