The Ludicrous Moral Panic Over The Pardon of Hunter Biden

We are currently witnessing a shitstorm of pearl-clutching indignation and anguish among both the liberal and conservative commentariat over Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter. While a flawed, tragic, formerly drug-addicted, at times sleazy, and legally culpable perpetrator of non-violent crimes, Hunter Biden is also a victim of selective prosecution. That is the assessment shared by former Attorney General Eric Holder and former lead prosecutor in Robert Muller’s Special Counsel Office, Andrew Weissmann.

Nevertheless, promoters of false equivalence are pushing the familiar “Biden’s-just-as-bad” meme. This wrongheaded moral incoherence is being absorbed into the already unfolding project of normalization by the MAGA regime-in-waiting and those who seem all too eager to capitulate to it even before the coronation.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s recent pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago comes to mind. They insisted the aim of their audience with the man they’d called a fascist and a threat to the country was not an effort at more Trump-friendly rebranding but merely “to restart communications.”

Tom Nichols argues that Biden’s actions will give Republicans an excuse to overlook Trump’s egregious pardons to come. He seems to be hallucinating a Republican Party that, since 2016, has done something other than enable a corrupt mob boss. Nichols speaks as if the GOP weighs the ethical rectitude of a decision in accordance with the norms established or affirmed by Democrats. Jonathan Chait, who has witnessed a decade of Trump’s open sadism and promises of violent retribution, claims to be utterly mystified by Joe Biden’s assertion that the one goal of a future MAGA justice department would be to persecute Biden and his son.

Biden’s only mistake in this episode was initially saying he wouldn’t pardon his son. He could and should have left that decision open. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems important to point out the obvious truth: pardons are lawful prerogatives used with only those found guilty of crimes, not moves to bypass legal accountability. And there is precedent. Other presidents, namely Lincoln, Clinton, and, of course, Trump, have pardoned family members.

Lincoln's pardon of his Confederate sister-in-law, Emilie Todd Helm, clearly destroyed his legacy.

For some folks, Biden’s decision seems like a troubling failure of moral integrity. It is true that we once lived in a country where the rule of law, not the law of rulers, prevailed, where the ruthless pursuit of partisan advantage or vengeance rarely drove investigations and prosecutions. Not using the pardon power to benefit one’s family, friends, and loyal consiglieri was a laudable ethical position. However, we don’t live in that country anymore. Thanks to the Supreme Court right-wing majority, which now functions as a panel of unaccountable MAGA ayatollahs, the US has officially mutated into a nation governed by autocratic caprice. After January 20 of next year, that devolution will be consolidated.

Trump’s impunity for crimes of treason, rape, corruption, and fraud – and the fact that half the voting electorate admires him for it – demonstrates that the rules and principles that once governed this country (at least aspirationally) no longer abide. His own pardons of fellow criminals and traitors further affirm that.

Charles Kushner, father of the president-elect’s son-in-law, thug developer, and convicted felon imprisoned for witness retaliation, was pardoned and nominated as ambassador to France by Donald Trump.

Hunter Biden, were he not pardoned, would likely be among the many political prisoners Trump has in mind to incarcerate and torment. Those not guilty of a crime will surely have one invented for them. Joe Biden’s pardon could not possibly sully a justice system that will soon be transformed into a retribution system. To do otherwise would be akin to extraditing an American citizen who had committed a non-violent crime in Russia and expecting Putin to preside over something resembling justice.

I’m not saying that those who oppose the new fascism should dispense with ethical constraints, but neither should they demonstrate their integrity by sacrificing family and friends to a regime obsessed with sadistic vengeance. When Kash Patel’s FBI-cum-Gestapo agents show up to arrest a family member for crimes against the Leader, I will not demonstrate my honest character by directing them to the hiding place.