Hunter Biden’s pardon is not going over too well on the platform formerly known as Twitter, which has now fully recast itself as the primary habitat for right-wing stalking horses.
Sometimes, though, the left does their work for them, as seen Sunday when the news broke that President Joe Biden was granting a “a full and unconditional pardon” on Sunday to his ethically challenged son, Hunter Biden. It’s about as blatant example of political nepotism as you’ll find, and it seemed no one could pass up the opportunity to highlight the president’s hypocrisy.
President-elect Donald Trump offered his first comments on the pardon Monday by suggesting he’ll have some controversial pardons of his own once he retakes office next month.
‘Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump has teased pardoning those involved in what’s considered to be “one of the biggest criminal investigations in US history” if he was elected. Now, Biden’s move may have all but cemented it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. added on X early Monday, “Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it.”
Others on X were making good use of an old tweet from Joe Biden sent one day after President-elect Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts for doctoring business records in hopes of obscuring payments he had made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Biden’s tweet: “No one is above the law.”
The gaslighting is mind blowing pic.twitter.com/ijvg7wlnRC
— Melissa Tate (@TheRightMelissa) June 1, 2024
Directly under the tweet is a section allowing for greater context from readers, “Community Notes”. One user noted, “The gaslighting is mind blowing.” Needless to say, context wasn’t the president’s friend on this day.
“On December 1, 2024, President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, for crimes covering nearly 11 years of offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
Musk screen grabbed the tweet and added a self-congratulatory caption: “Community Notes slays!” The feature was added after Musk bought Twitter and it’s been one of the few popular additions he’s made the social media behemoth.
But not everyone cheered what one reader called “the politicization” of the feature.
“I think this use of Community Notes is awful, and that such use will lead to the inevitable politicization and decline of Community Notes,” he said. “Community Notes should be for corrections of incorrect factual claims or false quotes. Not for ‘slaying’.”
I think this use of Community Notes is awful, and that such use will lead to the inevitable politicization and decline of Community Notes.
— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) December 2, 2024
Community Notes should be for corrections of incorrect factual claims or false quotes. Not for "slaying".
The pardon contradicts the president’s oft-repeated vow he would not interfere with the Justice Department’s investigation into his son.
Two days after the election, in which his handpicked successor, Kamala Harris, lost soundly to Trump, a CBS News reporter checked in with the president’s team and was assured there were no plans to reverse his vow and pardon his son.
In July, after being asked by ABC News’ David Muir if he had ruled out a pardon, Biden responded, without hesitation: “Yes.” A video montage of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly denying Biden’s intent to pardon his son has since gone viral.
Then: The White House repeatedly and categorically said that Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter.
— Laughing Legends (@LaughingLegend0) December 2, 2024
Now: Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter.
And they have the barefaced cheek to blame others for misinformation.pic.twitter.com/ykd5fxOpEt
But that decision was not written in stone. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, with his family in Nantucket, Biden revisited the issue, ABC News reports.
On Saturday, White House staff was notified before the president made the final call on Sunday.
Hunter Biden was due to be sentenced later this month after he was convicted on federal gun-related charges in June and reached a deal to plead guilty on nine tax-related charges in September. He faced significant prison time.
Jean-Pierre told reporters in response to Biden’s decision, “It wasn’t an easy decision to make” but that President Biden believed his son was “singled out politically,” targeted because they “tried to break his son in order to break him.”
That defense has yet to gain much traction on X, for one. The critics, on the other hand, couldn’t type fast enough.
This tweet about sums up their reaction:
“You’ve now cemented your legacy as the worst president in American history. You’re the model of political corruption.”
Another demanding accountability, “Hunter Biden literally filmed his crimes as he was committing them. We need accountability.”
While Trump is lambasting Biden for his decision, the president-elect has publicly stated he was open to granting a pardon to Hunter.
“See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously … and Hunter’s a bad boy,” Trump said during an October podcast Hugh Hewitt.
“There’s no question about it. He’s been a bad boy. All you had to do is see the laptop from hell.” Trump added, “But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country.”
