On Biden's Pardon

President Biden pardoned Hunter. Condemnation followed predictably and widely, even in the Atlantic and New York Times.

I have a different reaction: Biden should have also pardoned President Trump. And a fistful of Trump associates as well. He should have called for an end to escalating lawfare between the parties. It would have been a legacy-defining step toward the “unity” on which he campaigned.

As Biden put it so well,

“they’ve tried to break me—and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

With just a smidgen of empathy, or a peek at Trump’s X stream, Biden might suspect that President Trump feels the same way.

America is at a crossroads. Our justice, intelligence, and regulatory systems have been bent to partisan politics. For nearly 250 years, nobody brought charges against a losing presidential candidate. We are heading towards Tunisia, in which the challenger in the last election was “sentenced to 12 years in prison for falsifying documents—just five days before the poll.” Or Pakistan. And when losing an election means legal or regulatory disaster, politicians and parties do what it takes not to lose. When the battle is the war, the earth is scorched.

Trump needed a win to stay out of jail. Yes, that the Hunter Biden prosecution happened at all indicates some remaining Justice Department independence. But the score is about 120-1.

Someone needs to stand up, swallow hard, and sheathe these swords, lest the tit-for-tat spiral escalate.

Even self-interest argues for magnanimity.

The president’s pardon of Hunter was particularly broad, covering offenses “which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in” dating back to the beginning of 2014.

Blanket immunity for anything he may have done, not limited to crimes for which he has been found guilty, charged with, or even under investigation for, is a pretty big gift. The stench of “10 percent for the big guy” lingers.

The tit-for-tat game is not over. Biden can be investigated. The rest of the family business can be investigated. (Here, the pardon may be too clever. Hunter can no longer plead the 5th amendment to stay quiet.) The Trump justice department, FBI, and intelligence agencies might decide that spending a few hundred billion dollars on student loans, without Congressional authorization, and despite Supreme Court rejection, is a criminal act. Biden’s allies are not immune. Who spiked the Hunter Biden laptop story? How did Covid censorship arise? What regulatory threats were made to which businesses? Who got debanked and why? Who left cocaine in the White House cloak room? (Oh, sorry, the pardon covers that one.) Tit for tat, literally: Just what classified documents were stacked in boxes behind the Corvette? How did the Clinton campaign account for Steele dossier payments?

When inaugurated, President Trump could restore the justice and intelligence agencies, in a way that binds his successors as it binds himself. He could still declassify investigations, expose goings on of the Biden Administration, but refuse adamantly criminal prosecutions. Or, he could say, “Well that’s a nice shiny spear you perfected. Now that you’re on the sharp end, watch out.” A pardon in pocket and olive branch in hand make the former a bit more likely.

Biden missed a chance to say, “This war stops now.” Enough is enough. Biden might have challenged the Democratic Party to work towards normalcy, rather than to sharpen its own swords, attack with its considerable remaining legal and institutional arsenal, and prepare for even greater revenge. I hope in any case that the Democrats spend the next four years rediscovering checks and balances, the filibuster, the limited right of Presidents to appoint Supreme Court justices, regular order, norms and traditions, laws rather than regulations, regulations rather than executive orders, executive orders rather than dear colleague letters, how Trump vs. United States protects their president too. I hope they fight a Trump onslaught on principle, and in ways that permanently diminish presidential power. That might be a much better base to stand on in 2028 than another cycle of legal revenge. Biden could have pushed the ship off in that direction.

And the cost is low. What does Biden have to lose? What does his family and entourage have to lose? Even a pardon is not an exculpation. And, tactically, the media would have been so agog over the Trump pardon, they wouldn’t even have noticed Hunter’s!

Biden’s legacy will, so far, not be grand. The Hunter pardon adds to the taint of sleaze on top of policy failure and tragic personal decline. If he had pardoned Trump in the same breath, it would have been an historic gesture. He’d have turned us back from the road to Tunisia. Perhaps the country would not have followed, but we must eventually, and he would have showed the way with grace.