When the news arrived, I was not happy. President Joe Biden had issued a pardon to his son, Hunter. A President had pardoned a person who had been convicted of a crime. A father had pardoned a son.
How can we, how should we, separate Joe Biden’s role as a father and his role as President of the United States?
As some have noted, Joe Biden is up there in years. He chose a life of public service, mostly in elective office. The family he was raised in was not poor, but nothing was handed to him. He worked his way through college and went on to get a law degree. Upon graduation he worked as a Public Defender, dabbled in corporate law, managed properties, involved himself in local politics and, most importantly, married and became the father of three children. He was a happy, ambitious young man. In 1972, he and his family decided on a long-shot run for the Senate and, against all the early odds, he won. He was at the top of the world. At the age of 30 he had it all; a new, successful, promising career; a happy marriage with three young children; and a future to be filled with accomplishment and success.
Then, his wife and his daughter were killed in a traffic accident. His two sons were severely injured. His life was upended by devastating and irreplaceable loss. Even though he made the difficult decision to go forward with a life in Washington, as a Senator, every night he would take the AMTRAC train to his home in Delaware to be with sons, Beau and Hunter.
His ensuing life had twists and turns. His sons grew. In 1977, a new wife and companion, Jill, came into his life. His political impact and influence became greater. In 1981 he was blessed with a new daughter. After unsuccessful runs for the White House that never got off the ground, in 2008 he was elected Vice President of the United States, yet another pinnacle reached. But in 2010, personal ill fortune loomed once again. His oldest son, Beau, an Army combat veteran in Iraq, suffered a stroke. It began a slow, five-year decline, comforted by his father and others, until he died of brain cancer in 2015. On the cusp of declaring his candidacy to succeed Barack Obama, Beau’s father, Joe Biden, had lost yet another child. He pushed that ambition aside.
Joe Biden had only one son left and that one was no “child.”
He was a deeply flawed and drug-addled adult human being who had struggled for years to establish his own identity and, in the process, fell victim to drugs and a mangled family and business life.
The relationship between Joe and Hunter had many dimensions. The President did not and does not share Hunter’s considerable shortcomings. The most fundamental element in their relationship was and is, “father and son.” The dynamics of any family life are intricate. While we don’t know all the intricacies of their relationship, we do know this… As he enters his final years, Biden has endured the deaths of a wife, a daughter, and a son.
As news broke of the President’s pardon of his son, I found myself torn.
President Biden believes that Hunter Biden has been treated differently than anyone would have been who was not his son. The charge that he had lied on a gun permit should have been treated as a misdemeanor. His failure to pay taxes would have been settled with him paying what he owed with interest and penalties.
In fact, a plea deal had been worked out. Hunter would have admitted his misdemeanor behavior and, being a first-time offender, he would have received a suspended sentence as long as no further offense occurred in the following two years. But the Trump-appointed Judge wanted to re-open negotiations and the agreement was scrapped.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is loudly vowing to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies. He makes no promises to be fair, to seek justice, to uphold traditional norms. No! Trump has said loudly and quite clearly that he will seek retribution against anyone who had not supported him or got in his way.
Under those conditions, should President Biden have issued a pardon?
My initial answer was, “No. Not now.” I thought he should have waited until the Trump-appointed Judge announced a sentence. That would have been the right time to weigh all the factors at play and to consider, perhaps, a more nuanced pardon.
And, as a citizen, I look with concern at how Donald Trump will use this.
He has already said that he intends to pardon every January 6 insurrectionist who stormed the Capitol of the United States, damaged our seat of government, injured and caused the deaths of innocent people, while he sat on his rump and watched things unfold on TV. Only after hours had passed and the most serious damage and injuries were done did he reluctantly say to the rioters “…go home. We love you. You’re very special… I know how you feel.”
Those criminally convicted rioters and insurrectionists even created a prison choir with their recordings played at Trump election rallies.
As a consequence of Biden’s pardon Trump will say, “If Biden gets away with this pardon, who could possibly complain about my pardoning the loyal, peaceful rioters and insurrectionists who visited the Capitol on January 6th?”
No matter what, Trump will appoint convicted criminals to important seats in his Administration. He’ll do it because he can. And one of his justifications will be to point to President Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden.
At the end of the day, friends pointed out that Trump intends to do what he wants, period! He has already announced convicted criminals and utterly incompetent lackeys as Ambassadors and to other posts.
If Richard Nixon could be pardoned for any act he may have committed ever and Trump can escape responsibility for his own past crimes, those he was convicted of performing and those waiting in the wings, then President Joe Biden should have his son beside him in this final period of his life… as they and we watch the Trump disaster unfold.
Jim Walsh is a Nahant resident.
