In the final minutes before President Donald Trump was officially sworn into office, one of Joe Biden’s last official acts was to issue preemptive, blanket pardons to his siblings and two of their spouses. This followed a previous slew of other questionable pardons, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley and House members who investigated the January 6 Capitol attack.
These pardons are part of a series of unprecedented acts that raise crucial questions about Biden’s legitimacy, transparency and his legacy.
On Monday morning, Biden exited the White House with a bang. In his pardon announcement, Biden explained his reasoning, putting the blame on Trump. Biden said that his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.”
Biden claimed his siblings and their spouses had not done anything wrong, but he preemptively pardoned them anyway, to protect them. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances,” he said.
Biden’s reasoning is just plain silly and no one should buy it. Even in pardoning others, he’s eschewing responsibility. He’s saying he’s doing it, not because his family has done anything wrong, but because Trump’s such a vindictive person. Preemptive pardons may not be an admittance of guilt, but they certainly don’t imply innocence either. Biden’s Hail Mary on behalf of his family raises serious questions about whether blanket pardons for family and others is an abuse of the office itself.
Weeks earlier, Biden pardoned his son Hunter for a ten-year span of federal crimes, past and future. This is after he said he would do no such thing.
Biden’s pardon of Dr. Fauci is especially awful. He supported social distancing, which led to lockdowns. Because of these, elderly died alone, kids wore masks to school for months, if not years, and hard-working Americans lost businesses they spent their lives building. Lockdowns crippled the American economy and shattered people’s spirits.
Weeks ago, Biden also offered pardons and commutations to about 8,000 people, a record for a modern-day president. Some of his clemency grants were to white-collar criminals, but also to drug dealers and murderers. In December, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row. Now, they will be in prison for life, rather than receive a death sentence. This includes a man who murdered an 8-yar-old boy to prevent him from testifying about witnessing a drive-by shooting. The murder caused Connecticut to create their witness protection program.
Biden’s many pardons and commutations are a stunning example of an abuse of office and an egregious way to undermine the rule of law and the justice system in this country. To be clear, Biden didn’t remove 37 people from death row because evidence was brought forth that the inmates were wrongly convicted. Some of the people on death row had been convicted of murdering police and military officers. Where is the justice for the families of those slain?
Biden’s term was a case study in liberal ideology and incompetence. He seemed to govern haphazardly and without conviction or purpose. Whether it was unleashing chaos at the border or spending so much that inflation spiked, Biden had already hurt his own legacy.
Conservatives had long wondered if Hunter was involved in the crimes hurled at him. Or if Fauci would pay for misleading the country, costing Americans’ time with loved ones and precious funds. Biden’s family’s misdeeds likely go deeper than we’ll ever know. But conservatives can rest assured we were onto something and we were right to be cynical.
Biden’s last minute pardons and commutations ensured his reputation will remain forever tarnished. He’ll now be known as a reckless President who abused his office in his final moments, excusing the grave misdeeds and crimes of others, for everyone from his son to his siblings, to official leaders and serious criminals.