Pardon Me

The Democrats ran a female presidential candidate and lost.  Ironically, they've surrendered their cojónes to Donald Trump.

The Democrats have already expressed a willingness to work with Trump and his henchmen in trying to "reform" government and support "populist" policies in an effort to entrap Trump into making promises he won't keep, even though he'll find a way to deflect blame to others when he doesn't.  But no capitulation to MAGA morons is more blatant than Democratic opposition to President Biden's pardon of his son Hunter of charges of tax evasion and an illegal gun purchase.

Democratic senators such as Michael Bennet of Colorado and Chris Murphy of Connecticut have criticized the pardon as undermining President Biden's own insistence that no one is above the law, which will encourage Donald Trump to put himself above the law once he returns to power - as if he hadn't been planning to do that anyway.  The faux outage among the mainstream media - "Oh, I'm shocked - I'm shocked that the President pardoned his own son! - was just as insufferable,  with the New York Times, MSNBC, and Politico (Round up the usual suspects!)  all declaring Biden's pardon of his son a betrayal of a promise he'd made not to do so that could encourage Trump to pardon January 6 insurrectionists (which Trump had already promised he'd do, and that's a promise he can be counted on to keep!).  Spare me the terminal righteousness.

Let's review.  Hunter Biden was convicted of illegally possessing a firearm and was expected to receive a stiff sentence that - I reiterate - he would likely not receive if his name were Robert Hunter, not Robert Hunter Biden.  He was expected to be sentenced to prison for up to seventeen years for tax evasion, an offense that - again - he would see little or no jail time for if his name were Robert Hunter.  And he was expected to receive this sentence despite having paid his back taxes with the help of a friend.

So why did President Biden change his mind?  Because Kamala Harris lost the election.  And when it became apparent that Trump would install Kash Patel as FBI director - with Patel promising to make Trump's detractors and Biden's relatives pay for their obstinance to Trump.  Hunter would have continued to be harassed not just for the gun and drug charges but for accusations of his dealings with Burisma in Ukraine, a web of innuendo in yo' window so tangled I don't want to revisit it here.  The pardon protects Hunter from prosecution and persecution from any and all crimes Hunter Biden committed or may have committed in the past decade, and as long as he keeps his nose clean (no pun intended on his addiction, he's been clean and sober for years),  Patel can't lay a glove on him.    

And given the number of people Trump pardoned - including Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and too many more to list - Democrats and Republicans have a lot of damn gall to complain about Joe Biden reversing course and pardoning his own son.