Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
Everyone needs to play the same game they do.
Is it hypocritical, yeah probably, does he have any reason to answer for it? Naw
Trump just put Kusher in a role .. a person he pardoned for ... "preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC" per his own statement.
Right.
“Republicans” “Fume”
I don’t lend any credence to headlines like this anymore. I saw way too many headlines about how “young voters hate Trump” and clearly that meant nothing when election day came so I wish these “news” organizations would shut the fuck up with this bullshit. Just because 2 people do something doesn’t make it news.
I seriously think he should do a LOT of other shitty things Trump set the precedent for. Like perhaps seriously abuse that presidential pardon thing that Trump invented.
Like, I don't know, I'm just brainstorming here, perhaps order the assassinations of the future president and all of the key people circling around him. And then just go all Jesse Pinkman, "yeah! presidential immunity bitch!".
Would this pardon allow Hunter full ability to leave the US and enter into other countries? Because I can totally see Biden doing this as a move to get all of his family out of harms way once Trump takes office and I don't blame them one bit. The Republicans have been very vocal about their vengeance and honestly if this was the reasoning behind the pardon it would be the first time since the election that we've seen the president taking the threat we all face seriously.
I’m not happy about it either. It’s an abuse of power, no matter whose side the guy is on. This just further degrades the office of the president into a self-serving free-for-all.
I would have felt better if Biden was more honest about this. "Yes, this is a blatant abuse of my power, and shouldn't be allowed, but it is squarely within my Official Duties. The Supreme Court says that the only remedy is impeachment. Hey, Mike, I double-dog dare ya to do it!"
I think Biden should use his pardon power for good. I don't have a huge problem with this, but I want him to do something unexpected. Biden should pardon all the married immigrants after his program was recently shot down in court. For those that don't know, Many immigrants are married to US citizens, but cannot achieve citizenship that you normally would be able to do. It hinges on entering the country Illegally, which requires them to leave for up to 10 years before re applying for citizenship. Biden could pardon the "crime" of illegal entry, this removing the INS statue of not allowing them citizenship.
See the problem with that is. While the president can try to pardon unlawful entry, unlawful entry is a civil offense, meaning, you aren't even entitled to a court appointed lawyer. So the supreme court might try to weigh in on pardons for civil offenses.
But even if the pardon is all legit and pass the supreme court, it doesn't matter, in immigration law, all arrests, all convictions, any juvenile proceeding within the past 5 years, are all visible to USCIS and they are legally allowed to consider them when determining whether or not to allow someone to enter the US, whether or not to deport them, or whether or not to allow adjustment of legal status. Yes ALL records, even pardoned, even if sealed or expunged by court, they see everything. You can visit the USCIS website and see for yourself.
Edit: And oh, even if you are never arrested, but the FBI investigated you a few times, USCIS might have access to those and if the FBI agents wrote bad things on your file, you might have problems with immigration or naturalization. Yea its quite fucked up, but it is what it is.
Conveniently forgetting the fact Trump has literally thousands of pardons lined up for when he gets back in office
How does that saying go? Something like "if they didn't have double standards they'd have no standards at all"
Well, y'all mfuckers put a convicted felon, a rapist, a fraudster and a con artist as your president, so shut the fuck up.
It's a show.
They know that under standard circumstances there would have been no charges, let alone jail time. But, his name is Biden and they needed to prosecute and get their pound of flesh. Now, when Trump pardons violent felons and murders, as he has done before, they can point to Biden. As if tax evasion is a simular crime.
Performative theatre aided by the media.
In a perfect world I'd say he needs to let the system work and nobody is above the law, yada yada yada. Clearly this world and country are horribly fucked. For YEARS Republicans have been using the term "Biden Family" to make them sound like some kind of crime syndicate, coming up with "ominous facts" that were not indicative of any actual crime, held an impeachment over President Bidens head for years, distributed naked pictures of Hunter, and interfered with what would've been a simple plea deal, all the while trying to downplay the most corrupt presidency in our history.
Fuck the norms. Fuck ethics. Fuck propriety. The new America requires you to use every tool at your disposal just to get your most basic fucking rights. If Republicans think this is such an abuse of power they can do their fucking jobs for once in their lives and pass some fucking ethics reform. I applaud Joe's embrace of the new normal and I hope other Democrats figure out this is the new normal, whether they like it or not, and stop playing pussyfoot with a party that's been playing "kick the groin" for over 30 years.
Good. Fuckem. I’d be pissed about it, too, if we had something resembling justice in this country. Let them have aneurysms.
Words have proven futile. If Dems don't play the same game Republicans play we WILL lose this democracy.
Cool, so pardon someone besides your own son Joe. You can dress it up in flowery speech if you want but until this supposed willingness to play dirty leads to improvements in someone else's life this is just more of the same bullshit. He's not helping America with this action he's helping himself. That's not noble at all.
He already has one dead son, so I doubt he's in the mood to offer another as a sacrifice to the MAGAs
Agree that this looks and feels bad, but Hunter was overly scrutinized and punished for his crimes. He already paid his due and was the victim of a real witch hunt. If Trump was pardoning Don Jr I'd be pissed (depending on the crimes I suppose, let DonnyJ do some drugs), but that would be different because Hunter was never involved in politics, held public office or government positions, etc.
I don't care what his reasoning is. We elected him to protect democracy from Trump and this is perhaps the most obvious example that he's always been more interested in protecting him and his friends than the rest of us. We all know what's coming in 6 weeks and look at our supposed protector's most significant action since the election, handing out a pardon to his own family just like Trump did. Thanks Joe, I'm sure we'll all sleep better over the next 4 years knowing you dealt with Hunter's problems instead of ours.
Democracy has already been lost if every party has to play that game
I sorta dont blame them... Its not right, but I dont blame them.
Now, with return of darth cheeto and his ultra loyal crew of apointees, its now a priority to not have any active cases for the saftey of the biden family. 47 may seek vengance for any percieved offense, and the bidens going forward should not expect the DOJ to behave in the interest of justice for a few years.
The GOP can seethe and cope all they want, they laid the groundwork for this use of this sort of behaivior and uncle joe has not used it (at great expense to his sons future prospects, being national news for this long cant be healthy) up until this point.
Wow, they can’t even see far enough ahead to when their side is pardoning all the toadies. Shaking my head.
Na… they see exactly that. This is theatrical hand waving so they’ll be able to point to a counter example where the “Dems did the same thing!”
just frothing up their base who itsn't informed enough to know what's really up
I’m not pleased at the prospect of Republicans doing the same thing in four years, after the corruption of Trump’s second term, and then pointing their fingers at this… but, to anyone with half a brain and at least one eye… Hunter wasn’t in politics, wasn’t directly appointed to his staff or a representative in any fashion within the White House, and the gun and tax crimes are small fries compared to anything the Trump family and stooges are or have been up to.
Did you forget Trump pardoning several war criminals and others in his cabinet who directly worked with foreign adverse governments?
No, but America did and America will forget again. The only thing that matters is the freshest thing their opponent did, the one that gets the most media, and my small gripe about this, which should barely be an issue to begin with, is that the Republicans will blow it out of proportions and use it to excuse themselves for corruption and treason.
It’s a gripe. I understand why he did it. I understand the last guy did worse. But, I still reserve the right to complain a little.
Prospect? Where have you been? Did you miss when Trump pardoned Jared Kushner's father?
Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner [Jared Kushner's father] discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said.
In fact, this man who "pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering" has now been nominated to be Ambassador to France by Trump. There is no "prospect of Republicans doing the same thing in four years." They've been doing it for the last 40+ years already. You just haven't been paying attention.
It's about time the Democrats got of their damn high horse and got down in the mud and started fighting like they mean it.
Don Jr did cocaine in public at the recent Space X launch and not a peep out of the mainstream media, much less police.
If a policeman saw a black man outside a night club do what Don Jr did, he would have been arrested on the spot and immediately thrown in jail.
There’s no disagreement from me, before you made this comment or after.
Roger Stone, Steve Banon, Dinesh D'Souza all sorts of other crony based pardons were already done in Trumps last term.
Your Pearl Clutching the inevitable (as of it will now be Bidens fault) is ridiculous, and out of line.
Prospect? Trump handed out pardons like candy to far worse people who happened to aligned with his politics. After 8 years of seeing Trump rat-fuck norms and laws and precedent and unjustly go after his family and get away with everything, while everyone else tries to play by the rules, Biden is probably asking himself why he has to let his son risk prison when he knows everyone in the incoming administration wouldn't even give a second thought to pardoning.
I don't support it, but I get it. This is the kind of shit America voted for, right?
Haven't seen this linked yet so I'll leave it here: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-joseph-biden-2021-present - (25 pardons, 26 pardons including Hunter) https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021 - (144 pardons)
(Got distracted counting Trumps pardons, may be off by a few)
Yeah the choice for President was between cop and felon. The majority polled against equal application of the rule of law. Biden is just respecting the voters' wishes.