Leftists Scramble to Explain Biden’s Pardon
Democrats and their allies in the Leftmedia deny, deflect, and, occasionally, denounce.
Joe Biden’s Thanksgiving weekend gift to himself was a pardon for the turkey his son, Hunter. It was an outrageous act of self-serving hypocrisy, which he justified with a shameless claim of victimhood. It also illustrates that Dr. Jill Biden is still running the show.
“Of course I support the pardon of my son,” Jill Biden said Monday when what she meant is that she demanded the pardon.
Patriot Post readers know all that and aren’t surprised one bit. Neither will we be surprised if or when Biden pardons his brother, Jim, or even himself — because this whole charade is about the corruption of Joe Biden.
Somehow, though, Democrats and Leftmedia talkingheads and scribes are at least pretending to be shocked — shocked — that Biden’s a selfish liar.
Let’s start with the Leftmedia, who scrambled to overcome their humiliation by blaming or shifting attention to Donald Trump.
CNN’s S.E. Cupp, for example, offered this gem: “It doesn’t get said enough, but Trump’s enduring legacy will be convincing BOTH parties to lower the bar, and that possessing moral authority on anything is no longer a currency that matters.” In some ways, that’s an arguable point, but not even remotely so in this context. Heck, Trump was impeached the first time for talking to Ukraine about Biden family corruption in that country. It’s not Trump’s fault that, before he even came on the scene in 2015, the Bidens were selling influence in Ukraine, China, and other places. The media cover-up of that corruption cost Trump the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, NBC News worried that Biden’s pardon will “undercut” Democrat arguments that “Donald Trump is a threat to the rule of law, to faith in public institutions — even to the truth itself.” Axios sang from the same song sheet: “For years, Democrats have responded to Donald Trump’s brazen lying, shattering of norms and alleged corruption by emphasizing their own respect for the truth, institutions and the rule of law.” Now, Axios says, “Some Democrats believe Biden has sacrificed a moral high ground.”
Never mind that Joe Biden and his party willfully and flagrantly destroyed all those things.
Whoopi Goldberg, who once loved Donald Trump but now never misses a chance to display her Trump Derangement Syndrome, laughably insists that we “stop calling it a lie” because “Biden had no intentions of pardoning” his son. Until he did. What a ludicrous denial of reality. Biden always knew he would pardon Hunter before leaving office, and if he didn’t, then President Kamala Harris would do it after winning.
Spoiler alert: She didn’t win.
To that point, let’s turn back to NBC News and this glorious nugget of accidental truth reporting: “The president has discussed pardoning his son with some of his closest aides at least since Hunter Biden’s conviction in June, said two people with direct knowledge of the discussions about the matter. They said it was decided at the time that he would publicly say he would not pardon his son even though doing so remained on the table.”
Translation out of newspeak: Biden knowingly lied. CNN had a similar story.
Biden’s shameless spokesmouth, Karine Jean-Pierre, admitted as much yesterday. “Do you think this would’ve happened if Harris hadn’t lost the election?” a reporter asked her. She responded, “No. I can answer that. It is a no.” That’s careful parsing, given what I believe Harris would have done. On follow-up, KJP backpedaled a little, wanting to decline to speak “to hypotheticals.” But she had already let the cat out of the bag — it was a lie.
That didn’t stop her from trying. Somehow, with a straight face, she added, “One of the things that the president believes is being truthful to the American people.”
KJP also reiterated the lie that his decision was a holiday change of mind. “He said he came to this decision this weekend,” she claimed, “and he said he wrestled with this … because he believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the raw politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”
So now Biden wants us to know that his own Justice Department is politicized. Big if true.
Now, let’s return to Biden’s party, which is as fractured as ever after his handling of his exit arguably cost his party the November election.
A growing chorus of Democrats have criticized the pardon, albeit sometimes with as much milquetoast restraint as possible. Senator Peter Welch mustered the courage to call it “unwise.” Various House members agreed. Greg Landsman dubbed it a “setback.” Jason Crow said it was “a mistake.” Jared Golden worried that it “sets an unfortunate precedent,” implying that Trump could use it. Dean Phillips, who briefly challenged Biden for the Democrat nomination, more explicitly appealed to both sides-ism: “Pardoning powers have been abused by Trump and now Biden.”
Other Democrats were stronger. “He put his family ahead of the country,” argued Colorado Governor Jared Polis. Representative Greg Stanton asserted, “He got this one wrong,” noting that it “wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution” but one in which Hunter was “convicted by a jury of his peers.” Senator Gary Peters mused, “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.” Senator Michael Bennet agreed, saying it “further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
“No family should be above the law,” said Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Biden said often, “No one is above the law.” Except it’s apparent that the Bidens are, and Democrats and the Leftmedia are having the darndest time explaining why.
