Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter was, in part, revenge for the way the Democrats shoved him onto the trash heap of presidential politics.
In fact, Joe Biden has gone out of his way to get back at them.
Let’s start with the tumultuous political events of the summer.
Biden is told by Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama’s proxies, that he has to go. His stunningly poor performance in his ill-advised June debate with Donald Trump, revealed to the American public his dramatic mental decline.
His coterie of allies and advisers, in and out of the White House, had tried their darndest to cover it up, aided and abetted by an acquiescent news media. They insisted he was as sharp as a tack, totally engaged, at the top of his game.
They sure couldn’t peddle that b.s. after the debate. The Democrats were panicked that unless they shoved Biden aside, old Joe would lead them to a devastating defeat in November. (Funny how that turned out, no?)
Although Biden still believed he was the guy who could beat Trump, he got their message and grudgingly, reluctantly, protestingly left the race.
The party poohbahs were relieved and thought they could engineer a flash primary or some other process that would surface a strong candidate to run against their worst nightmare.
But they underestimated Biden’s wrath at being ripped from the job he had aspired to for so long, and had coveted so much.
Immediately after announcing the end to his candidacy, he endorsed his number two, his vice president, Kamala Harris.
Whoa! The Pelosis, Schumers and Obamas didn’t see that one coming, and now they were stuck. There was no way they could bypass Biden’s endorsement. Kamala Harris was going to be the Democrat candidate for president.
You screw me, I screw you.
She was as weak a candidate as the Democrats could have nominated. David Plouffe, the guy who helped engineer Barack Obama’s presidential victories and who was a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, recently admitted their polling never, never had her leading Trump.
And that brings us to this past week’s pardoning of Hunter Biden. It was Joe Biden’s chance to do his son a solid. It was also his one last chance to stick it to the party that had betrayed him.
With just 50 days left in his presidency, Scranton Joe did what he repeatedly and publicly insisted he would never do. He pardoned Hunter, who was convicted in federal court of three felonies.
I understand Joe Biden’s emotions and compassion for Hunter who has all kinds of serious personality, behavioral and addiction issues.
I’m not as worked up about the president pardoning his son, even after lying about it for months and months. Biden’s a politician who has lied a lot over the years. He lies. He fabricates. He plagiarizes. So I wasn’t shocked when he went back on his word about the pardon.
He’s also entitled to exercise the pardon power granted to him under article two of the US Constitution, even if it’s for his son.
But it’s the reason he gave for the pardon that screwed over his party.
Biden could have asked for the American people to understand why he did it. He could have asked for their compassion. He could have said something like:
My fellow Americans. I lost my first wife and my one-year-old daughter in a car crash. My son Beau, died of brain cancer when he was 46. I know Hunter has problems. He’s led a troubled life and has battled addiction. Yes, he did wrong and the American justice system found him guilty. I know I said I wouldn’t pardon him, but I’m 82 years old and after all the tragedies in my life, I cannot bear the thought of my one remaining son in prison. You may hate me for it, but I love my son. I hope you can feel my pain. Thank you and God bless you.
He didn’t say any of that.
The excuse Joe Biden gave for such a wide-ranging pardon was, “Raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”
And with those words, he dropped the mic and jetted off to a conference in Africa and left his fellow Dems to deal with the fallout.
It was really something watching Chuck Schumer squirm when reporters pummeled him with questions about the pardon. “I got nothing on that” he kept repeating. Nothing, indeed.
Biden ripped a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook and blamed the American justice system for its wrongful political indictment and conviction of Hunter Biden.
He gave credence to Donald Trump’s beef that the federal justice system is corrupt. He gave Trump more political cover to root out what he calls the weaponization of the federal justice system.
In one sweeping presidential act, Joe Biden shot holes in the Democrats’ argument that they are on the side of the angels and that Donald Trump is the devil, that he’s a mortal threat to the rule of law, to faith in our public institutions and to the truth itself.
The Democrats and their cohorts are hemming and hawing, trying to make chicken salad out of you know what. But they have only themselves to blame. They gave old Joe the heave-ho and expected him to say thank you, I love you guys.
A guy who’s been a Washington insider for nearly half a century doesn’t take that lying down.
Back in July, Joe Biden gave the Dems Kamala Harris. This past week he gave them his middle finger.
Apparently, there is no wrath like the wrath of a president scorned.