‘Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?’ Trump wrote on social media
When news broke Sunday night that U.S. President Joe Biden had signed a presidential pardon for his son Hunter, president-elect Donald Trump was quick to react.
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Trump was referring to people convicted for their part in the U.S. Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, when they tried to halt the count of electoral votes that would formalize Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
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He added that, “despite what they’ve done to me, where they’ve gone after me so viciously,” that he might consider a pardon. “I happen to think it’s very bad for our country,” he said of the conviction, adding that “I could have gotten Hillary Clinton very easily.”
Joe Biden on pardoning son Hunter: ‘Enough is enough’
“I believe in the justice system,” he said in the statement, “but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
He added: “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong … In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”
He concluded: “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
“I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” he added.
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Commentators from both sides of the political spectrum have questioned Biden’s decision and where it might lead.
“While as a father I certainly understand (Biden’s) natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I am disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country,” Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, wrote on X. “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”
He added: “No one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”
Elon Musk trolls Biden with ‘community note’ on X
Elon Musk used the “community notes” function on X to change Biden’s May 31 post reading: “No one is above the law.”
Biden wrote the post after a New York jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a so-called hush money scheme to silence an adult film star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The post now includes the note: “Joe Biden granted a full and unconditional pardon to his son, Hunter, on December 1, 2024. Hunter was convicted of multiple felonies but will now go unpunished.”
Musk then shared the post with a screenshot adding: “Community Notes slays.”
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