President Joe Biden on Sunday granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, a felon, resolving a decade's worth of crimes he committed or may have committed against the United States. exempted in the eyes of . In doing so, the Democratic president went back to his wordsit became clear once again that it was not reliable from the beginning.
Republicans lambasted Biden for his hypocrisy and the ambiguity and breadth of the pardon, which dovetailed neatly with the timeline of the Bidens' Burisma scandal — a scandal that was originally launched as a strategic plan before the 2020 election. What was exposed by the report was censored and downplayed by the cabal of intelligence officials and liberal media.
A small number of Democrats said they wanted to criticize Biden, while others said they wanted to use the anger over the pardons to deter the Republican president from following suit.
Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly, a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said:
said “The pardon power in the Constitution needs to be revisited,” CNN said Monday.
Article 2, Section 2, Section 1 of the Constitution
state,”[The president] It shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for crimes against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. ”
Connolly said he could sympathize with Biden's “view that his son was the object of vigilante justice,” and said he could sympathize with Biden's “view that his son was the subject of vigilante justice,” and added that Congress over Hunter Biden's scandalous dealings with the Ukrainian company Burisma and other questionable foreign companies. He implied that the investigators' questions were legally illegal.
“I don't think the pardon power should be this broad.”
“That being said, what other father in America has the power to pardon his son or daughter if he or she is convicted?” Connolly said. “We must put limits in place so that we cannot pardon our relatives, even if we passionately believe that they are innocent or that their cause is just.”
Mr. Connolly declined to condemn Mr. Biden's controversial pardon or former President Bill Clinton's pardon.
drug-trafficking half-brother But she was willing to criticize President Trump's pardon of Ivanka Trump's father-in-law, Charles Kushner, in 2020, calling it an “abuse of power.”
After Jim Acosta acknowledged that Congress currently lacks the power to block pardons, Connolly said, “The pardon power is so broad that we will probably have to amend the Constitution.”
Connolly added: “I don't think the pardon power should be this broad. It's clear how it can be used and abused, even for legitimate causes. Other U.S. “Parents do not have the power to grant pardons,” he added. Please forgive the crimes of their sons and daughters. ”
“This is in direct contrast to our national principles of the rule of law and equal justice, which is that no one can be a judge in his or her own case.”
Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) also suddenly decided to become interested in presidential pardons. Tweet“Democrats should have been in favor of reforming and reducing the pardon power from day one of President Biden's presidency. As a father, I empathize with President Biden, but whether it's about the archaic pardon power or against super PACs. , we must be a party of reform with a broad force. ”
Democrats tend to advocate limiting a Republican president's pardon power while he is in office, or in this case, soon to be in office.
For example, Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen (Tennessee) said:
repetition advocated President Trump's first term limited the president's pardon power. suggest In a December 2020 op-ed, he said the Republican president is abnormal and selfish enough to warrant a constitutional amendment.
“The broad language used in the Constitution is designed for flexibility, but also assumes public interest-oriented leadership and respect for institutional norms,” Cohen wrote. “If presidents are not bound by the institutions and norms of our democracy, their ability to pardon themselves and their families could be misused to create a quasi-hereditary monarchy where the first family is literally beyond the reach of the law. This is contrary to our national principles of the rule of law and equal justice, that no one can be a judge in his or her own case.”
Mr. Cohen spared Mr. Biden from a similar tongue-lashing on Monday.
states“President Biden lost a son and will do everything he can to help him. The bond between father and son is very strong, so this pardon doesn't surprise me at all. Biden was clearly targeted. He is the president's son, and he took responsibility in a way that no other person in a similar situation would have.”
“Pardon power is supposed to be a safety valve against injustice, and I can understand why President Biden thought it was appropriate in this case,” the Tennessee Democrat added, apparently creating a “quasi-hereditary monarchy.” doesn't seem to be that worried about it.
Mr. Cohen is sympathetic when fellow travelers abuse their power, but now that Mr. Trump is about to take office, he has expressed a new interest in limiting his reform powers, saying, “Abolishing pardons for the president himself'' “I urged my colleagues to co-sponsor and support a constitutional amendment that would make the president's family, administration officials, and campaign staff members commit crimes on his behalf, for his benefit, or at his direction.” Those who did. ”
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