Democrats sharply criticise Biden’s pardon of his son

WASHINGTON – Several Democrats in Congress spoke out on Dec 2 against

President Joe Biden’s decision to issue a broad pardon of his son, Mr Hunter Biden,

criticising the action as one that would further erode Americans’ waning faith in democracy and the rule of law.

Many Democratic lawmakers, particularly progressives, have defended Mr Biden’s move as the justified action of a concerned father who fears that President-elect Donald Trump will abuse his power to follow through on his threats to seek retribution against his rivals.

But others, especially moderate members of Congress, said the President’s decision to pardon Mr Hunter Biden – which he repeatedly vowed he would not do – would cause further damage to democratic norms.

“I’m disappointed this was the decision that he landed on here,” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado said of the President in an interview.

“He promised he would not do this. I think it will make it harder for us going forward when we talk about upholding democracy.”

Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington said the President’s move offered proof of a two-tier justice system that treated the wealthy and politically powerful differently from everyday Americans.

“The President made the wrong decision,” she wrote on social media. “No family should be above the law.”

In his own post on social media, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said Mr Biden’s “decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all”.

In an interview, Mr Bennet compared the pardon to Mr Biden’s decision to wait until the final months of his re-election bid to drop out of the race, calling it an example of the President “putting his personal interest ahead of his responsibility to the country”.

Many progressives have rallied behind Mr Biden.

“Way to go, Joe!” Representative Jasmine Crockett, a first-term Democrat from Texas, said on MSNBC over the weekend.

“Let me be the first to congratulate the President for deciding to do this, because at the end of the day, we know that we have a 34-count convicted felon about to walk into the White House.”

But critics of Mr Biden’s decision were not confined to the party’s moderate wing.

“President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is, as the action of a loving father, understandable – but as the action of our nation’s chief executive, unwise,” Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, a progressive, said in a statement.

And Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, who headed the Democrats’ Senate campaign arm, called Mr Biden’s decision to pardon his son “wrong”.

“A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment,” Mr Peters said in a statement.

“This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.”

But Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Chamber and a long-time colleague of the President, was among Mr Biden’s defenders on Dec 2. Mr Durbin said he understood the President’s “humane” decision, saying that Mr Hunter Biden had been “exploited” for political purposes.

“Joe Biden is many things, but I can say for certain he is a loving father,” Mr Durbin said in an interview. The President, he added, “would gladly go into that jail cell himself to spare his son that experience”. NYTIMES