Readers Write: Biden pardons his son

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, has generated a fair amount of criticism from Democrats (“Biden issues full pardon to son Hunter,” front page, Dec. 2 and “I beg your pardon,” Strib Voices, Dec. 3). They bemoan the loss of the moral high ground against an ascendant Donald Trump. The MAGA crowd is using the pardon as yet another stick with which to metaphorically beat Democrats over their heads and shoulders. But the bigger impact of this pardon may have been missed in the hue and cry of hypocrisy. When Democrats look back, they might point to Hunter Biden’s pardon as the presage of a new era in how Democrats fight in the political arena.

Up until this pardon, Democrats hewed to notions of political norms no longer honored or practiced by the GOP and its standard-bearer. Democrats fought with “joy,” and used calm reasoning in the face of ignorance. The result was losing the White House. The Hunter Biden pardon ignored those Marquess of Queensberry rules and strategies and plowed headlong into brutal new territory.

In the movie “The Untouchables,” Elliot Ness struggled with enforcing prohibition laws against Al Capone. Ness was not effective until he met Jim Malone, a police officer played by Sean Connery. Malone advised Ness, “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” The Hunter Biden pardon, like Malone’s advice to Ness, might inspire other Democrats to adopt more hardball tactics.

Philip Trobaugh, St. Paul

•••

As a father, I can understand why Joe Biden pardoned his son. It was, to him, an act of mercy and love.

As a citizen, I am dismayed. President Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter Biden, though I believe done out of love for his son (think about your child for a second if you had this same power), opens Pandora’s box for future presidents to pardon as an act of vengeance and justify it. And it opens a wider ability to circumvent the justice system. Just wait ’til the prison gates are opened for the insurrectionists of Jan. 6, 2021. Yes, Trump was going to do it anyway (I hear the screams of protest and part of me screams that out, too). But now he (or any future president) can justify the thousand acts of retribution by twisting and elevating this one decision made by President Biden. It isn’t fair, but it is true.

Joe Biden, as a dad, did what many of us would do. Joe Biden as president made a mistake that will hurt this country down the road. Not unlike Ruth Bader Ginsburg not stepping down before her death when on some level she had to have known the stakes, and our country is suffering for it now. Love and hubris cloud the vision of every one of us.

So bring on Pandora’s box. And hope that, in some way, one act of understandable, misguided love is worth a thousand acts of vengeance in the end.

Neal Hagberg, Minneapolis

•••

Now that President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter Biden because of selective and unfair prosecution brought on by political pressure on federal prosecutors, I am assuming he will shortly be pardoning President-elect Trump for all of his prosecutions brought on by the same reasons and in the same manner? Highly doubtful as the Democratic elite tend to think most laws don’t apply to them if, in their minds, not obeying the law as it pertains to them is the right thing to do.

Bruce Debele, Maple Grove

•••

Pardoning Hunter Biden may sully Joe Biden’s legacy as president, but it cements his legacy as a loving Dad. I think that’s more important to him.

Robert Veitch, Richfield

•••

I think that President Biden made an error in judgment by pardoning his son Hunter Biden. Whether the President’s decision hurts his party or becomes political gain for Republicans is very much a side issue. I know a lot of loving parents, children and siblings who have tried to “help” addicts by paying their bills, covering up or lying about their behavior, or trying their very best to shield addicts from facing the consequences of their behavior.

They think that these are loving things to do. However, the typical result is that addicts keep acting out and delay getting the help they need to recover. In essence, “enabling” actually delays the addict’s recovery and keeps him/her from getting healthy. So, I’m sad that President Biden pardoned his son. The president’s action is very likely to cause greater harm to his son Hunter Biden in the long run. The most loving thing the President could have done would have been not to intervene and let his son face the consequences of his behavior. Pardoning Hunter Biden was not a prudent thing to do! There are good programs to help relatives of addicts. I hope that the Bidens find out one that works for them.

Guy M. Marzano, Wayzata

•••

I’m glad President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden’s nonviolent crimes were a part of his life as an addict, and now he has been sober for 5 1/2 years. Republican legislators, dominated by a man who himself has escaped sentencing after conviction of 34 felonies, have hounded Hunter Biden for many years, not because of what he did, but because he is Joe Biden’s son. Joe Biden has been a good president, and before that, a good senator, serving our country for more than 50 years. Now he is unappreciated and old, and what he has left in life is his family, including his prodigal son, Hunter Biden. I’m happy for the time they have left to share.

John Stuart, Minneapolis

•••

Give me a break. Trump is complaining about Joe Biden pardoning his son, when he himself is planning on pardoning the insurrectionists who tried to overthrow our government on Jan. 6, 2021? Including himself? Sorry, not buying it.

Deb Nelson, Maple Grove

•••

Looking at the bright side of President Biden’s full and unconditional pardon of his son Hunter Biden for any offenses committed during the 10-plus year period from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024, at least we shouldn’t now have to continue to suffer through the left beginning every mention of President-elect Trump with the phrases “convicted felon” and “rule of law.” As President Biden observed with regard to his son, “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” What’s sauce for the goose ...

Charles Spevacek, Minneapolis

•••

Can we please stop with the double standards? So Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden. I know he said he wouldn’t, but didn’t Trump repeatedly say he knew nothing about Project 2025 and now is packing his administration with its collaborators? And before you say Joe Biden is setting an awful precedent, at the end of his last term, Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to his daughter Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law and just tapped him to be ambassador to France. If there’s to be outrage, it needs to be on both sides.

Wendy Jacobson, Minneapolis

•••

No one is above the law! Except my son Hunter.

Chad Hagen, Cook, Minn.

•••

Pardon me, but President Biden has every right to change his mind and pardon his son Hunter Biden, even after months of stating the opposite. President-elect Trump and his I’ve-got-mine-so-forget-about-you administration will undoubtedly shout from the rooftops that President Biden reneged on his promise to not pardon his son.

Yep, the current president of the United States on his way out of office succumbed to parental anguish and feelings that justice had already been accomplished. So what? Give the guy a break! If Trump were in the same position, what would he do? I think we all know the answer to that one.

Sharon E. Carlson, Andover