For the first time, I've got to disagree with you, regarding President Biden’s pardon of his son. The charges and especially the sentencing of Hunter Biden were directed solely because of his father's position as POTUS. While Biden has "broken his word" not to pardon his son, this was premised on the basis of a just and fair application of the rule of law by the next administration. However it is abundantly clear that with the election of tffg that the rule of law AND our Constitution will be wrecked by the publicized Project 2025 and tffg's "Vengeance Tour 2025." This includes future continued persecution of Hunter Biden.
Some might argue the morality of breaking a promise. In normal times I would've agreed with you. But these are not normal times, and we must do what is necessary to keep our families safe and to endure the next 4 years and beyond.
Absolutely. I tried to emphasize in my intro, perhaps unsuccessfully, that I fully understand what he did and why he did it, but feel sad that we are in a world where it's necessary. Who knows but that if I were in his shoes I wouldn't have done the exact same thing. I likely would have.
But Jess you are still making an excuse. You better than anyone knows charging Hunter was wrong to begin with. So state that clearly. Fuck normalcy we are not in those times.
Yes, I was surprised how inexplicably sad I felt while simultaneously believing 100% that it was the right thing for President Biden to do for his son. So that is how I interpreted your intro, Jessica. I think if nothing else the greatest compliment I can give Biden is his unconditional love for his children. I am sure I would do the same thing. But also, for better or worse (usually worse), I am an institutionalist by nature who works in the government/courts and it just feels like this is emblematic of the future we're already living -- with political prosecutions & Parsons, failure of institutional norms, etc. I know how much injustice there is historically & always, so I'm not suggesting this is worse! Just understand the mixed emotions even while I firmly believe his choice was right.
“Perhaps unsuccessfully” is really key here. There is no perhaps —you were unsuccessful. Period full stop. Shocking how blind you are on the very concept of the rule of law after all many of us have been through since 2016. You are wrong here. I am in NC helping to fight the Repugs on Bill 382 who are hell bent on stripping away power from newly elected Dem Governor and Lieutenant Gov. Where is the rule of law here??? I am a paid subscriber and supporter because you did an excellent job on the campaign and galvanized many of us but I humbly urge you to read Constance Baker Motley, Thurgood Marshall and maybe you have-
Yeah, this is my favorite Substack but I completely disagree with her take on the pardon. Also, the “grieving the morals” part feels unnecessary - Biden has upheld his morals his whole administration and he was willing to let his son go to jail under a normal administration. That is integrity and morality to me. Trump and his cronies are an existential threat and Biden is supposed to sacrifice his son to them to keep some moral high ground that doesn’t exist?
Your response implied some moral failure on the part of Biden. NO!! As someone said elsewhere, Biden should give blanket pardons to everyone on Trump's enemies' list. There may be people on that list who I might think deserve to be taken down a notch, but because I believe in the rule of law, I cannot leave even them to the mercy of Trump"s "justice."
These next 4 yrs are not just about keeping our families safe - it's about maintaining our Constitution. If we lose that - we lose everything. Without the freedoms it provides - our families will never be safe.
The Constitution gives the President the pardon power, I believe. And all presidents have chosen to use it as they see fit. As we know, Trump used it to pay off egregious criminals who protected him during the first Administration. Basically he dangled it as a bribe to keep them quiet. Biden’s pardon of his son, on the other hand, falls squarely into a common category of pardons - when a person has been given an overly harsh sanction for a non-violent offense for which they have been convicted and/or plead guilty. Legal analysts have made this point (see Andrew Weismann, for example). I don’t think it required any compromise of his morals to make this decision, since it was squarely within his authority as president. The fact that it involved his only living son makes it even more understandable to us as parents, especially as we are fully aware of the type of “justice” the new Administration will delight in meting out to their “enemies.” I’m just not sure why this is such a fraught issue for so many.
It would have been nice if you had said it: "Biden’s pardon of his son, on the other hand, falls squarely into a common category of pardons - when a person has been given an overly harsh sanction for a non-violent offense for which they have been convicted and/or plead guilty."
I think I agree with everything you said, JR, but I also share Jessica's disappointment. Hunter Biden was treated unfairly, and it's clear it was due to his relationship with his father.
However, I believe that President Biden should not have been so definitive in his promise not to pardon his son. His word is one of the things we could always count on.
Given that, the way it was dropped on us Sunday was not good. President Biden should have at least set the stage and recalibrated expectations.
I think it's perfectly understandable that he would decide to intervene under the circumstances, but the way it was done opened the floodgates of criticism and gave life to trump's ridiculous claims of impropriety.
However, what's done is done, and no amount of hand-wringing or arguing between us is going to change that. If anything, it further divides us. We have serious challenges ahead, and I, like Jess, intend to face them with my own integrity intact.
So you imply that Biden"s integrity is not intact? Biden has always been an optimist; he demonstrated an unparalled belief in the system, and let it play out in the case of Hunter's trials, despite the obvious political overtones of his legal struggles. However, he would have had to be brain dead to think that Trump and his minions have any intention to do anything else but try to destroy trump's "enemies."
Another knife at a gun fight. 😩 Really?Someone changed their mind about their child not being raked through the dirt over and over again and jailed by sadists. What would you have done?
I totally agree with your excellent response. Sometimes telling a lie is the greater good. Like hiding Jews during the Holocaust. I think Biden didn’t lie, however. He changed his mind when the facts changed, as does any wise person. Facts…monsters will now run our government without rule of law, focusing on revenge and terror.
I also disagree! I think the Joe Biden changing his mind about pardoning Hunter was absolutely correct. Trump is putting people He pardoned in charge of agencies who can do this! This same people are talking loudly about revenge prosecution!
I am actually thrilled that Biden exercised his power to pardon his son.
I can't speak as knowledgably about the gun charges but as a (retired) CPA who taught tax law and worked on many tax cases with real life people, I can tell you that I have NEVER seen a prosecution with suggested criminal penalties for someone who had ALREADY paid all their back taxes with penalties & interest. Never saw it, of course, until Hunter Biden's case.
And the gun charges? It was basically a paperwork issue; he owned the gun for 11 days when he was thrown into a dumpster by his-then girlfriend. The gun was never used in the commission of a crime. So, again - unusual by the DOJ to even bring charges.
After the people - especially Kash Patel who keeps an ENEMIES LIST -- was nominated, Bidan had no chioice but to protect Hunter.
Saving your son from being shivved in a federal prison run by a man who has declared his intent to wreak vengeance on him is the epitome of parental love. Precedence be damned.
If Jesse Smollets case was thrown out because a plea deal was reneged upon, then clearly the law was violated when Hunter was charged anew. This was an act of mercy, dad or not, and the proper application of the pardon power. Biden has to live with his broken promise; but he took on that burden for his son's future. We should support him in this.
Jess, First my heartfelt thanks for all of your work to help us engage in a meaningful way. I too, find that I disagree on Pres Biden's pardon, following some research of the current situation. These are, unfortunately, not normal times and Biden is more privy to related information than any of us can be. We have a baseline for Hunter of legal applications rarely applied for someone with his victimless crime charges, a withdrawal of the plea bargain agreement, etc. Add to this the verbal/written statements of Cash Patel, his past involvement in attempts to fabricate false 'evidence' against both Joe and Hunter, and the inclusion of Pres. Biden in his written list of the people who will be targeted, and the pardon becomes understandable to me. I would have done the same in his situation and I don't consider myself an immoral or unethical person - I don't, within any fiber of my being, believe that Biden is, either.
I didn't mean to imply that Biden was either--I, too, think he's a deeply moral man in most ways--but I hear that that's how many took it. I think I was more trying to focus on how sad it made me feel in general, and how much ALL of us need folks to look up to in this moment. I fear I've not made my point esepcially successfully. Oh well.
Your sadness should be totally directed at the already clear moral failures to come of the future administration. Biden never should have had to be put in the position of pardoning Hunter. Hunter should never have been facing criminal charges according to legal analysts who have more than documented the absurdity of the charges.
Sometimes there will be a person answering, but often your message will be recorded, especially if you call after office hours. I believe it was Jessica recently who mentioned the office staff makes tallies of comments for the elected official to understand his constituents' concerns.
I haven’t ever called my reps, either! Not sure about the live human. Either way, it’s good to have a script to work off of. I’d ramble if I didn’t have one haha
I'm amazed at the melt-down over the pardon, especially on the 'left'.
I don't see it in a negative light AT ALL, and I'm really surprised at the number of pundits and commentators who do.
-------------------
LOGIC LESSON
1) The prosecution would never have been brought with a normal individual. Full stop.
2) The President of the United States fully understands that the incoming individual intends to use the governmental legal apparatus as a persecution apparatus. Full stop.
3) Under those two circumstances, it is extremely wise of him to step in and protect the accused.
-------------------
It's not even close.
I suggest you read Ben Meiselas's commentary about this issue. People have lost their collective minds over a righteous decision which is SO mild in the context of Trump and his party that it isn't even a pinhole on a wall. And no, you don't have to choose this hill to die on because somehow it demonstrates our relative righteousness.
I think many of us are on the same page regarding President Biden pardoning Hunter. I wish he hadn’t promised not to, but under the circumstances, I think he had to. The charges were unfair and he was going to be severely punished under the new administration. It’s sad that it’s come to this but this is the country we are living in.
Won't be until after inauguration so we have lots of time. I'm only suggsting we call about it now because if there's no uproar initially they'll assume no one cares and get used the idea of acquiescence. We can't have that.
Integrity: A friend of mine needed a new liver—not because of any lifestyle choices, he just got dealt a bad one at birth. I asked him if he’d be able to drink alcohol after the surgery, and he said probably, but he planned to be a teetotaler for the rest of his life anyway. He explained that he felt it would be disrespectful to the person who, by dying, gave him a chance to live.
For the record, he’s nice to the living as well. But it really stuck with me that he would, as a matter of principle, forgo a fairly basic pleasure for the rest of his life.
Just to add briefly that I have no problem with the pardon. The charges were absurd and there was far more to come. I find the MSM repellent in their bogus bothsidesism.
For the first time, I've got to disagree with you, regarding President Biden’s pardon of his son. The charges and especially the sentencing of Hunter Biden were directed solely because of his father's position as POTUS. While Biden has "broken his word" not to pardon his son, this was premised on the basis of a just and fair application of the rule of law by the next administration. However it is abundantly clear that with the election of tffg that the rule of law AND our Constitution will be wrecked by the publicized Project 2025 and tffg's "Vengeance Tour 2025." This includes future continued persecution of Hunter Biden.
Some might argue the morality of breaking a promise. In normal times I would've agreed with you. But these are not normal times, and we must do what is necessary to keep our families safe and to endure the next 4 years and beyond.
Absolutely. I tried to emphasize in my intro, perhaps unsuccessfully, that I fully understand what he did and why he did it, but feel sad that we are in a world where it's necessary. Who knows but that if I were in his shoes I wouldn't have done the exact same thing. I likely would have.
But Jess you are still making an excuse. You better than anyone knows charging Hunter was wrong to begin with. So state that clearly. Fuck normalcy we are not in those times.
Yes, I was surprised how inexplicably sad I felt while simultaneously believing 100% that it was the right thing for President Biden to do for his son. So that is how I interpreted your intro, Jessica. I think if nothing else the greatest compliment I can give Biden is his unconditional love for his children. I am sure I would do the same thing. But also, for better or worse (usually worse), I am an institutionalist by nature who works in the government/courts and it just feels like this is emblematic of the future we're already living -- with political prosecutions & Parsons, failure of institutional norms, etc. I know how much injustice there is historically & always, so I'm not suggesting this is worse! Just understand the mixed emotions even while I firmly believe his choice was right.
“Perhaps unsuccessfully” is really key here. There is no perhaps —you were unsuccessful. Period full stop. Shocking how blind you are on the very concept of the rule of law after all many of us have been through since 2016. You are wrong here. I am in NC helping to fight the Repugs on Bill 382 who are hell bent on stripping away power from newly elected Dem Governor and Lieutenant Gov. Where is the rule of law here??? I am a paid subscriber and supporter because you did an excellent job on the campaign and galvanized many of us but I humbly urge you to read Constance Baker Motley, Thurgood Marshall and maybe you have-
Yeah, this is my favorite Substack but I completely disagree with her take on the pardon. Also, the “grieving the morals” part feels unnecessary - Biden has upheld his morals his whole administration and he was willing to let his son go to jail under a normal administration. That is integrity and morality to me. Trump and his cronies are an existential threat and Biden is supposed to sacrifice his son to them to keep some moral high ground that doesn’t exist?
Again, see my response above.
Your response implied some moral failure on the part of Biden. NO!! As someone said elsewhere, Biden should give blanket pardons to everyone on Trump's enemies' list. There may be people on that list who I might think deserve to be taken down a notch, but because I believe in the rule of law, I cannot leave even them to the mercy of Trump"s "justice."
Well said.
These next 4 yrs are not just about keeping our families safe - it's about maintaining our Constitution. If we lose that - we lose everything. Without the freedoms it provides - our families will never be safe.
100%.
The Constitution gives the President the pardon power, I believe. And all presidents have chosen to use it as they see fit. As we know, Trump used it to pay off egregious criminals who protected him during the first Administration. Basically he dangled it as a bribe to keep them quiet. Biden’s pardon of his son, on the other hand, falls squarely into a common category of pardons - when a person has been given an overly harsh sanction for a non-violent offense for which they have been convicted and/or plead guilty. Legal analysts have made this point (see Andrew Weismann, for example). I don’t think it required any compromise of his morals to make this decision, since it was squarely within his authority as president. The fact that it involved his only living son makes it even more understandable to us as parents, especially as we are fully aware of the type of “justice” the new Administration will delight in meting out to their “enemies.” I’m just not sure why this is such a fraught issue for so many.
Perfectly said
It would have been nice if you had said it: "Biden’s pardon of his son, on the other hand, falls squarely into a common category of pardons - when a person has been given an overly harsh sanction for a non-violent offense for which they have been convicted and/or plead guilty."
I think I agree with everything you said, JR, but I also share Jessica's disappointment. Hunter Biden was treated unfairly, and it's clear it was due to his relationship with his father.
However, I believe that President Biden should not have been so definitive in his promise not to pardon his son. His word is one of the things we could always count on.
Given that, the way it was dropped on us Sunday was not good. President Biden should have at least set the stage and recalibrated expectations.
I think it's perfectly understandable that he would decide to intervene under the circumstances, but the way it was done opened the floodgates of criticism and gave life to trump's ridiculous claims of impropriety.
However, what's done is done, and no amount of hand-wringing or arguing between us is going to change that. If anything, it further divides us. We have serious challenges ahead, and I, like Jess, intend to face them with my own integrity intact.
This is more or less how I feel exactly. Thanks, Bob.
So you imply that Biden"s integrity is not intact? Biden has always been an optimist; he demonstrated an unparalled belief in the system, and let it play out in the case of Hunter's trials, despite the obvious political overtones of his legal struggles. However, he would have had to be brain dead to think that Trump and his minions have any intention to do anything else but try to destroy trump's "enemies."
Another knife at a gun fight. 😩 Really?Someone changed their mind about their child not being raked through the dirt over and over again and jailed by sadists. What would you have done?
With you on this, JR, 1000%.
I totally agree with your excellent response. Sometimes telling a lie is the greater good. Like hiding Jews during the Holocaust. I think Biden didn’t lie, however. He changed his mind when the facts changed, as does any wise person. Facts…monsters will now run our government without rule of law, focusing on revenge and terror.
I also disagree! I think the Joe Biden changing his mind about pardoning Hunter was absolutely correct. Trump is putting people He pardoned in charge of agencies who can do this! This same people are talking loudly about revenge prosecution!
Agree! Hunter had to be pardoned.
I am actually thrilled that Biden exercised his power to pardon his son.
I can't speak as knowledgably about the gun charges but as a (retired) CPA who taught tax law and worked on many tax cases with real life people, I can tell you that I have NEVER seen a prosecution with suggested criminal penalties for someone who had ALREADY paid all their back taxes with penalties & interest. Never saw it, of course, until Hunter Biden's case.
And the gun charges? It was basically a paperwork issue; he owned the gun for 11 days when he was thrown into a dumpster by his-then girlfriend. The gun was never used in the commission of a crime. So, again - unusual by the DOJ to even bring charges.
After the people - especially Kash Patel who keeps an ENEMIES LIST -- was nominated, Bidan had no chioice but to protect Hunter.
Saving your son from being shivved in a federal prison run by a man who has declared his intent to wreak vengeance on him is the epitome of parental love. Precedence be damned.
Here’s some great ERA NEWS: the first article has a link to the letter to Pres Biden signed by 46 Senators compelling him to #PublishEquality
Yesterday’s great news:
https://www.styleweekly.com/virginia-senators-urge-biden-to-enshrine-era-as-28th-amendment/
Friday’s Op Ed in USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/11/29/biden-ratified-era-constitution-equal-rights-amendment/76484339007/
And here’s the link to register for TONITE’s 12/3 ERA town hall with Senator Gillibrand!
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_J1CStFhxTja1YeF8nOhOaQ#/registration
LFG!!!
Excellent, Lorie! Thanks!
Thanks for these links, Lorie!
If Jesse Smollets case was thrown out because a plea deal was reneged upon, then clearly the law was violated when Hunter was charged anew. This was an act of mercy, dad or not, and the proper application of the pardon power. Biden has to live with his broken promise; but he took on that burden for his son's future. We should support him in this.
Jess, First my heartfelt thanks for all of your work to help us engage in a meaningful way. I too, find that I disagree on Pres Biden's pardon, following some research of the current situation. These are, unfortunately, not normal times and Biden is more privy to related information than any of us can be. We have a baseline for Hunter of legal applications rarely applied for someone with his victimless crime charges, a withdrawal of the plea bargain agreement, etc. Add to this the verbal/written statements of Cash Patel, his past involvement in attempts to fabricate false 'evidence' against both Joe and Hunter, and the inclusion of Pres. Biden in his written list of the people who will be targeted, and the pardon becomes understandable to me. I would have done the same in his situation and I don't consider myself an immoral or unethical person - I don't, within any fiber of my being, believe that Biden is, either.
I didn't mean to imply that Biden was either--I, too, think he's a deeply moral man in most ways--but I hear that that's how many took it. I think I was more trying to focus on how sad it made me feel in general, and how much ALL of us need folks to look up to in this moment. I fear I've not made my point esepcially successfully. Oh well.
Your sadness should be totally directed at the already clear moral failures to come of the future administration. Biden never should have had to be put in the position of pardoning Hunter. Hunter should never have been facing criminal charges according to legal analysts who have more than documented the absurdity of the charges.
"...Biden is more privy to related information than any of us can be." ✅
Loving the call scripts, thank you. It’s been wonderful to read your posts. Thank you for striving so hard to stay positive. It really helps.
Thanks, Erin!
I'm new to the resistance! No, I've never called my state reps. (CA)...but I want to!
That said, hopefully not a stupid question, when I call, am I getting a live human or will I be leaving a message into a machine? Thank you!!
Sometimes there will be a person answering, but often your message will be recorded, especially if you call after office hours. I believe it was Jessica recently who mentioned the office staff makes tallies of comments for the elected official to understand his constituents' concerns.
I haven’t ever called my reps, either! Not sure about the live human. Either way, it’s good to have a script to work off of. I’d ramble if I didn’t have one haha
Yes a live human will answer!
Thank you Jessica! You are making this all bearable.
I'm amazed at the melt-down over the pardon, especially on the 'left'.
I don't see it in a negative light AT ALL, and I'm really surprised at the number of pundits and commentators who do.
-------------------
LOGIC LESSON
1) The prosecution would never have been brought with a normal individual. Full stop.
2) The President of the United States fully understands that the incoming individual intends to use the governmental legal apparatus as a persecution apparatus. Full stop.
3) Under those two circumstances, it is extremely wise of him to step in and protect the accused.
-------------------
It's not even close.
I suggest you read Ben Meiselas's commentary about this issue. People have lost their collective minds over a righteous decision which is SO mild in the context of Trump and his party that it isn't even a pinhole on a wall. And no, you don't have to choose this hill to die on because somehow it demonstrates our relative righteousness.
Get a grip.
A million thanks. I need you.
I think many of us are on the same page regarding President Biden pardoning Hunter. I wish he hadn’t promised not to, but under the circumstances, I think he had to. The charges were unfair and he was going to be severely punished under the new administration. It’s sad that it’s come to this but this is the country we are living in.
I agree.
When does the senate vote on cabinet appointments? We are getting a new senator in California and I want to call the correct office. Thanks
Won't be until after inauguration so we have lots of time. I'm only suggsting we call about it now because if there's no uproar initially they'll assume no one cares and get used the idea of acquiescence. We can't have that.
Schiff will be sworn in to the Senate on Monday. As far as I can tell, his contact info is till the same. Laura Friedman is to serve out his time in the House. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-12-03/schiff-to-be-sworn-in-as-californias-next-senator-on-monday
Integrity: A friend of mine needed a new liver—not because of any lifestyle choices, he just got dealt a bad one at birth. I asked him if he’d be able to drink alcohol after the surgery, and he said probably, but he planned to be a teetotaler for the rest of his life anyway. He explained that he felt it would be disrespectful to the person who, by dying, gave him a chance to live.
For the record, he’s nice to the living as well. But it really stuck with me that he would, as a matter of principle, forgo a fairly basic pleasure for the rest of his life.
Thank you for urging your readers to pressure President Biden to publish the ERA. This is our last chance before the misogynists are sworn in.
Just to add briefly that I have no problem with the pardon. The charges were absurd and there was far more to come. I find the MSM repellent in their bogus bothsidesism.