Hunter Biden par­don will be ‘dark mark’ on Biden lega­cy: his­to­ri­an

Pres­i­dent Biden’s deci­sion to go back on his word and par­don his son will be a per­ma­nent stain on his lega­cy, a pres­i­den­tial his­to­ri­an said Thurs­day.

Dou­glas Brink­ley, a pro­fes­sor at Rice Uni­ver­si­ty argued to USA Today that there is “noth­ing pos­i­tive” about Biden’s deci­sion. The par­don has already drawn crit­i­cism from Repub­li­cans and even Biden’s allies in Con­gress.

“The prob­lem that Pres­i­dent Biden has lega­cy-wise is he said he would­n’t par­don his son,” Brink­ley said. “He gave his word, crossed his heart, and then, alas, he end­ed up doing it. It will strike some peo­ple as unfair and oth­er peo­ple will say it’s a father doing what he had to.”

He added that the par­don will only serve to be a “dark mark” on Biden’s term mov­ing for­ward.

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Brink­ley also not­ed the trou­ble Hunter has caused for his father’s pres­i­den­cy since gain­ing office. Inves­ti­ga­tions into the first son have resound­ed through Con­gress and the media, pro­vid­ing a coun­ter­point to then-ongo­ing crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions into Pres­i­dent-elect Trump.

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“Hunter Biden’s been an alba­tross around his father’s neck for the entire pres­i­den­cy,” Brink­ley said.

Brink­ley goes on to argue that Trump’s vic­to­ry in Novem­ber may have been the decid­ing fac­tor, with Biden fear­ing that the incom­ing admin­is­tra­tion would tar­get his son with more inves­ti­ga­tions.

Nev­er­the­less, the move won him no allies. Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som, typ­i­cal­ly a staunch ally of the pres­i­dent, said he was “dis­ap­point­ed” in the deci­sion and that he “can­not sup­port it.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D‑Calif., who chairs the Con­gres­sion­al Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus, also said he was “dis­ap­point­ed” in the deci­sion Wednes­day. He went on to note that Biden had gone back on his word.

Biden had vowed mul­ti­ple times that he would not inter­vene in his son’s case, first in June when his son was con­vict­ed on three felony firearm charges, and then in Sep­tem­ber after Hunter plead­ed guilty to fed­er­al charges of tax eva­sion.

“I am not going to do any­thing,” Biden said this sum­mer. “I will abide by the jury’s deci­sion.”