Joe Biden

It's a tough one. As an elected official you'd hope he'd take the high road and say that as a person convicted of a crime his son should take his medicine and it would be an abuse of power and run contrary to the rule of law for him to pardon him.

But as a father he has a son who, let's face it, has been hounded to this outcome not because of what the son has done but because of who his father is. He's bound to feel some responsibility and given his age there's a good chance that he would die whilst his child was imprisoned.

I don't think it's the "right" thing for Biden to do, but I can empathise as it is an invidious position. I can't say that I wouldn't do the same thing.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself mate.

 

In what way are you empathising?

 

I think Biden's pardon of his son has given Trump a "get out of jail free" card. Whatever the rights and wrongs.

 

Because I am a father and understand the strength of loyalty and love to a child, and how it would be difficult to override that emotion to do the technically correct thing.

I find your question a bit weird to be honest, presumably trying to set up some smug grammatical "sympathy vs empathy" pedantry.

 

This pretty much. I was going to write something similar but then realised it was in response to someone who refers to Joe Biden as 'Sleepy Joe' and realised there's no point.

It's not the right thing to do, but I can understand why he did it.

 

He already had it. Biden's action has made no difference.

 

If we are being honest, Gerald Ford set the precedent when he pardoned Richard Nixon. And that was 50 years ago. Should Presidents be able to pardon criminals? - probably not. But also, should politicians be able to hound a member of the public because he is related to a rival politician? - again probably not, but he was being.

 

This "pardon" facility simply should not exist.

 

Think the biggest issue is, and what will probably even strengthen Trump in the public view, is the fact Biden and his staffers said countless times he wouldn't pardon his son.

When majority of Jan6ers get pardoned, you can bet your bottom dollar this will get fetched up every 2 minutes.

 

Trump bad. Got it. Agree with it. No desire to dispute it in any way.

All irrelevant.

The president has pardoned a guilty man because he is his son.

 

Best and simplest summary I've seen.

 

I think you could. You seem like an eminently clever chap.

 

Gosh, I'm embarrassed now

 

Aye would be a shame if trump used this as a mandate to pardon his guilty friends, make millions of dollars off the presidency, appoint corrupt people to high ranking positions etc.

Because he clearly did none of that in his first term.

 

Isn't there $2bn of Saudi Arabian cash just lying in Jared Kushner's bank account? Nothing to do with services rendered or anything like that because that would have been a bribe and been illegal.

 

Trump has pardoned his son-in-law's father who he has now named as his Ambassador to France. A man found guilty of federal tax evasion and threatening a witness for the prosecution in his trial. Is that ok then?

Two wrongs don't make a right but If I were in Biden's position in light of what Trump and his henchmen have been saying about hunting down people who went after the Jan 6th insurrectionists, I would have pardoned my son too.

 

The pen is mightier than the sword

 

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