Biden’s pardon of son, Hunter, roils Democrats’ post-election reckoning: ANALYSIS

President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, is throwing a bombshell at his party’s post-election soul-searching.

Democrats are still reeling from last month’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump, with some in the party blaming the popularity — justified or not — of elitists who are out of touch with the concerns of everyday voters while more comfortable with other wealthy people. and well-connected allies.

Now, after months of vowing not to do so and arguing that the justice system treated Trump fairly, Biden is tossing out his son’s allegedly politicized convictions on tax and gun charges, sparking a warning that the move reinforces perceptions that the party is failing. he is acting according to his word and his rules.

“This literally reinforces the same challenge that Democrats faced in the election, which is that the elites are talking to the elites, convincing each other that they’re right. Well, you can’t get more elite than this,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist. and former aide to Sen. Joe Manchin, IW.Va.

“It’s not about forgiving the son. What about everyone else’s son?” Kofinis added. “If you’re going to do this kind of dramatic action that’s going to benefit one person in your family, you have a responsibility to go there and say why. But you can’t say why because the justice system is rigged because you’ve just spent the last four years saying it wasn’t rigged. So it’s not tailored for Trump, but it’s tailored for your son?

Hunter Biden was indicted on federal gun charges after he lied about his drug use on a firearm application and pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges, including three felonies.

The president’s announcement Sunday evening marked a bombshell at the end of a holiday weekend. In it, Biden insisted that his son was “treated differently” after “various political opponents in Congress encouraged me to attack me and oppose my election.”

The pardon is also particularly broad, covering “all crimes against the United States that he has committed or may have committed or participated in” from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024, beyond weapons and tax charges.

Republicans quickly decried the move as a miscarriage of justice, especially after Biden said for months that he would not use his power to intervene in his son’s legal problems.

“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., he wrote in a message from X. “It’s unfortunate that instead of cleaning up decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”

“Tonight’s pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice,” added Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican in the Senate in the next Congress.

Democratic lawmakers were tight-lipped on the pardon late Sunday night, but by Monday afternoon they were more vocal in their opposition.

“Democrats should be apologizing for reforming and curtailing the pardon power from Day 1 of the Biden Presidency. As a father, I empathize with President Biden, but we need to be the party of reform, not about the archaic pardon power, super PACs, or broad war powers,” Rep. Ro Khanna , representing California, said in X.

“President Biden’s decision to pardon his son was wrong. The family and allies of a president should not receive special treatment. This was an abuse of power, erodes trust in our government, and emboldens others to bend justice to their own interests, and they should not should receive special treatment,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. add.

Now, some party insiders warned ABC News, Democrats see themselves in danger of engaging in the same behavior they warned against before Trump took office, and applying campaign rhetoric about the integrity of the justice system to one side of the political divide. .

“Something is playing (with voters),” said one Democratic pollster. “The takeaway, as far as it goes, for the average independent voter, is that both sides are playing each other. They don’t mean any of that rhetoric.”

The White House sought to do damage control on Monday, laying the blame squarely at the feet of Republicans who will take joint control of Washington at the end of next month and have sidelined Hunter Biden’s legal work and business ties for years.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden granted the pardon in part because “it didn’t seem like his political opponents were going to let him.”

“They would continue to go after their son. That’s what he thought,” he added, declining to speculate on the political ramifications of the move.

“Two things can be true. You can believe in the Department of Justice, and you can also believe that the process has been politically damaged,” he stressed.

The controversy over the apology comes as some Democrats blame Biden’s decision to run for re-election in the first place as the reason for Harris’ defeat.

While many Democrats expressed empathy for Biden’s stance as a father, they suggested it was another reason to put the president in the rearview mirror as the party puts together a new playbook for the future — a split that some hoped could make the long run less likely. -term fall

“I think the party is already going to be so deeply and completely alienated that I don’t know that this cuts that bond between Biden and the future Democratic Party any more or less than it would already be. Anything, it could accelerate it,” said one senior Democratic strategist.

“I think it’s politically stupid,” said the person. “It makes us look bad, and it gives us the impression that we don’t have a moral high ground, and we have to own it, or we have to realize that we have to stop being preachers of it. I think it’s a bad policy, but I don’t know exactly what the repercussions will be” .

Still, that doesn’t mean Democrats who are skeptical of the long-term consequences are happy with the move.

Almost every Democrat who spoke to ABC News was concerned that Biden’s pardon opened the door for Trump to protect people they predicted did not deserve a pardon. And amid a broader shift, however theoretical, some suggested that a strong prosecution of party leaders could go a long way.

“He’s not going to eliminate it, because Biden is the president of the United States,” said the Democratic pollster. “But if Democrats ever hope to reinvent themselves in a post-Biden future, they’ll have to start denouncing Biden now when it’s hard, not in the future when it’s easier.”