Repub­li­cans get on board with Biden par­don from father­ly per­spec­tive

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Republicans get on board with Biden pardon from fatherly perspective

Some Repub­li­cans expressed under­stand­ing after Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s recent move to par­don his crim­i­nal­ly con­vict­ed son sparked crit­i­cism from both sides of the aisle. 

While they con­veyed deep dis­may that the pres­i­dent broke repeat­ed promis­es not to grant clemen­cy to Hunter Biden, Sen. Tom­my Tuberville (R‑AL) and a for­mer man­ag­er for the Trump cam­paign were among the Repub­li­cans who showed sym­pa­thy for his action com­ing from a father to a son. 

“Well, I’ll put it this way: If it was my son, I’d par­don him, too,” Tuberville said in com­ments Mon­day to the press.

“Here’s what I didn’t like: Don’t lie to us,” he added. “Don’t tell us you’re not going to do it and then do it.”

Mean­while, David Bossie, who helped lead Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump’s reelec­tion cam­paign, ridiculed the president’s move to par­don a fam­i­ly mem­ber as “an embar­rass­ing end to a dis­as­trous pres­i­den­cy” before admit­ting he would have done the same for his son. 

Bossie made the com­ments dur­ing an inter­view with News­Na­tion host Chris Cuo­mo on Mon­day.

After Cuo­mo asked, “Dave, would you par­don your son?” Bossie replied, “Well, yes, but it is embar­rass­ing.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (I‑WV), a dis­il­lu­sioned for­mer Demo­c­rat who left his par­ty this year and often sounds bipar­ti­san tones, also said Mon­day he under­stood where the pres­i­dent was com­ing from as “a father,” before adding he wished a par­don had been added for Trump as well. 

The pres­i­dent announced the “Full and Uncon­di­tion­al Par­don” for his son Sun­day evening, just before he flew to Africa. 

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden hugs his son, Hunter Biden, after address­ing the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Wash­ing­ton, Wednes­day, July 24, 2024, about his deci­sion to drop his Demo­c­ra­t­ic reelec­tion bid. (AP Photo/Evan Vuc­ci, Pool)

The par­don cov­ers any offens­es Hunter Biden has been accused of com­mit­ting between Jan­u­ary 2014 and Decem­ber 2024. The peri­od goes beyond the tax and gun con­vic­tions lev­eled at the president’s son this year back to when Hunter Biden first joined the board at a major Ukrain­ian ener­gy com­pa­ny called Buris­ma, at a time when his father was the sit­ting vice pres­i­dent. 

Repub­li­cans launched a year­long inves­ti­ga­tion and impeach­ment effort start­ing in 2023 inves­ti­gat­ing Joe Biden over alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion, argu­ing that he and his son used the fam­i­ly name to gar­ner lucra­tive busi­ness prof­its in Ukraine and else­where. 

In one instance of cor­rup­tion, Repub­li­cans point­ed to pub­licly avail­able doc­u­ments from the State Depart­ment obtained by the New York Times, which revealed Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambas­sador to Italy for help with Buris­ma while his father was the vice pres­i­dent. 

While the inves­ti­ga­tion fiz­zled out in August 2024, court fil­ings made that month by spe­cial coun­sel David Weiss’s office, who was lead­ing a fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tion into Hunter Biden, showed Hunter Biden alleged­ly accept­ed bribes from Roman­ian busi­ness­man Gabriel Popovi­ciu in exchange for influ­enc­ing U.S. gov­ern­ment agen­cies. 

How­ev­er, under his father’s sweep­ing pres­i­den­tial par­don that can­not be reversed, Hunter Biden will not face pros­e­cu­tion for any pos­si­ble fed­er­al crimes that may have hap­pened dur­ing the ten-year peri­od.

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The push­back from mem­bers of the president’s own par­ty over his par­don has been, in some cas­es, harsh­er than even Tuberville’s assess­ment. 

“Pres­i­dent Biden’s par­don of his son Hunter is, as the action of a lov­ing father, under­stand­able,” Sen. Peter Welch (D‑VT) said. “But as the action of our nation’s chief exec­u­tive, unwise.”