The Pardon of Hunter is an Act of Nepotism

What Does President Biden Tell Us About the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act? The Epistemological Consequences of His Son’s Pardon

There’s more obnoxious about the hypocrisy. Every year, federal prosecutors file hundreds of cases against persons charged with lying on the Firearms Transaction Record, or Form 4473, which is required from anyone buying a firearm from a licensed gun dealer. In 1993, then-Senator Biden made that form a key part of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. How was the president who made gun control and tax enforcement important parts of his political message that now sees his own son’s transgressions as nuisance offenses?

It was a good idea for the president to break his promise as soon as he was politically safe to do so. He doubled down on his lie about the prosecution of Hunter, saying that it was a result of political pressure on the judicial process. It isn’t true. Hunter was accused of being abetted and financed by him willingness to trade shamelessly on the family name. A previous plea agreement between Hunter and federal prosecutors fell apart last year under scrutiny from a federal judge.

One of the reasons the Republican Party is in charge is due to the pardon that President Biden granted for his son Hunter. In its rank mendacity, political hypocrisy, naked self-dealing and wretched example, it typifies so much of what so many Americans have come to detest about what the MAGA world calls “the swamp.”

Presidents are free to use any number of pardons they like, as long as they are not limited by the number or who they serve. In this way, they reveal their roots in the royal prerogative of mercy. There is only one reason presidents, or kings, issue pardons: because they want to.