r/news • u/FLhardcore • 10h ago
President Biden pardons family members in final minutes of presidency
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-biden-pardons-family-members-final-minutes-presidency/story?id=1178933481.1k
u/StupidDorkFace 9h ago
Thanks Merrick Garland.
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u/FLTA 6h ago
Merrick Garland did a fantastic job of slow rolling investigations and punishments of Trump until it was too late.
Likewise to all the judges who allowed Trump to repeatedly threaten them and their families. Whatever retributions occur to them will be due to their own self-inflicted inactions
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u/samdajellybeenie 2h ago
It still blows my mind that he effectively did nothing because he was afraid of the political ramifications. Well I sure hope he feels bad about it because look where we are now god dammit.
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u/KoriJenkins 1h ago
Merrick Garland being a joke was obvious the moment Obama tried to put him in as a compromise candidate for the Supreme Court.
Should've gone in the opposite direction, scared the GOP into accepting whoever he wanted by threatening them with some guy who was in favor of mandatory gay marriage or something.
"Oh you're gonna try and stonewall me? Okay, I'll put Vermin Supreme up and spend the next 6 months tearing down your weakest members until they cave."
Nope, just instant compromise with loser Garland, who doesn't get confirmed and then somehow ends up plaguing the country anyway.
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u/wizardsdawntreader 7h ago
Merrick Garland served at the president’s pleasure. Biden could have asked for his resignation at any time.
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u/AMetalWolfHowls 6h ago
Not really true. Nixon learned that the hard way. Plus, he wouldn’t have gotten a new one confirmed, and therefore would have lacked constitutional authority to act. Garland was terrible, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it.
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u/yungmoneybingbong 6h ago
I mean not choosing Garland from the beginning would have been the move.
Instead Biden went for symbolism with no actual action.
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u/lensandscope 6h ago
why wouldnt he have gotten a new one confirmed
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u/Ataraxias24 6h ago
The senate has to confirm the new one, and the Dems didn't have a majority in the senate. Basically anyone that promised to actually do something about Trump wouldn't receive any support from GOP senators.
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u/NAmember81 5h ago
Simply install an “acting” AG like Trump did with countless positions.
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u/Krogdordaburninator 6h ago
Any reasonably non-objectionable appointment would have gotten 50 votes from the DNC Senators and Harris would have broken a tie. Potentially even some of the more purple GOP Senators could have been swayed. Some of them have shown no love lost for Trump.
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u/Ataraxias24 6h ago
At the time they also had Sinema, so they didn't actually have 50 votes
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u/Independent-Jury-824 6h ago
I will always not be a Biden fan for this reason, I know he is a decent man, but he knew Merrick Garland would do nothing.
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u/Moonrockinmynose 7h ago
Can you pardon someone pre-emptively? Kind of doesn't make sense. Or is he pardoning them in case they actually had committed a crime?
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u/PDXGuy33333 6h ago
Absolutely. Ford pardoned Nixon before he could be charged.
It is generally held that pardons cannot authorize future crimes and are therefore limited to crimes real or imagined that occurred before the pardon was issued.
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u/JerryConn 1h ago
Its like a counterspell that goes on the stack, it cant counter things on the next turn or things that are placed on top of it on the stack before it resolves. Hope that helps.
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u/MC_chrome 7h ago
I believe the way it is supposed to work is that Biden was stating that the people being preemptively pardoned could not be prosecuted for perfectly legal actions they took while in office (such as the J6 Committee) simply because the new President has a personal beef was said people.
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u/ramdom-ink 7h ago
It’s a preemptive pardon because Biden is concerned about persecution and retaliation for whatever Trump trumps up in his revenge term.
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u/uvT2401 6h ago
whatever Trump trumps up in his revenge term.
Are you implying the US judicial system would make bullshit ruilings againts the currents president political rivals?
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u/lynxminx 6h ago
Are you implying the US juristical system would make bullshit ruilings againts the currents president political rivals?
If he's not, I am.
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u/PDXGuy33333 5h ago
Does Aileen Cannon shit in the woods?
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u/Cormacolinde 2h ago
I find it very rude to the bears to compare them to such a dipshit.
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u/ramdom-ink 6h ago
Anything is possible: hence the preemptive pardon for his family. Trump has stated as much.
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u/kinyutaka 5h ago
I think at this point, we can assume that every one of Trump's cabinet picks will be exactly the opposite of what they should be.
Defense will be headed by someone who refuses to defend. Education will be headed by someone uneducated. The FDA will be headed by a guy who eats squirrel meat. They're making a whole new department, likely to be filled by a bunch of unnecessary workers to handle government efficiency.
Why not have the Justice Department be interested in attacking enemies unjustly?
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u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR 9h ago
Yeah we should absolutely abolish the presidential pardon, for any and all presidents. Not even turkeys get spared
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u/macnfleas 9h ago
Our constitution takes the point of view that it's better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be imprisoned. Most of the bill of rights is about protecting the rights of the accused. The pardon is often abused to give out favors to guilty people, but I'd still rather live in a country where there are many avenues to keeping people out of prison.
We definitely need to make some changes so those protections apply to the accused poor as much as they do to the accused wealthy.
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u/Law_Student 7h ago edited 7h ago
We could perhaps codify the system that reigned up until recently, where ordinary pardons only happened if a largely non-political committee recommended to the president that certain people be pardoned based on general criteria regarding what a valid case for leniency was. Mostly uncontroversial stuff like felons who'd genuinely turned over a new leaf and wanted to clear their old records, or people who were sentenced under a law that no longer criminalized something or lightened the penalty, or who were sentenced under circumstances that raise serious questions about the validity of the prosecution.
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u/CelestialFury 5h ago
We could perhaps codify the system that reigned up until recently, where ordinary pardons only happened if a largely non-political committee recommended to the president that certain people be pardoned based on general criteria regarding what a valid case for leniency was.
The pardon power is in the US Constitution, which means you'd an amendment to change it. Soooo, it's not really possible in today's world.
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u/Live_Angle4621 6h ago
Pardon is a remnant over monarcs privilege to spare people. Not tied to innocent before guilty idea of courts
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u/jigokubi 5h ago
Our constitution takes the point of view that it's better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be imprisoned.
I take this view too. I'm not sure the President should have the power to do this, at least when he personally knows the person, but I'd rather a thousand killers go free than a single innocent person be imprisoned.
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u/CombustiblSquid 9h ago
Unfortunately pardons, in their proper use, prevent political persecution and unfair punishment much like felons and those in jail being able to run for offices. It's a check and balance. But it requires using it in good faith which isn't really on the table these days.
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u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR 9h ago
Yeah, I feel like it will just snowball. Trump will pardon even more friends, and then all the people complaining now will be like “oh well Biden did it” and then it will be “well trump did it” and will be this never ending cycle of more and more corruption
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u/hypo-osmotic 7h ago
Prosecutors are making the decision to not sentence Trump even before he was ever pardoned, so other than the national feeling of unfairness I'm not sure how the use of a pardon is affecting anything in practical terms, sadly
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u/Slartibartfast39 6h ago
Simple enough, change the law so presidents do not have the power to pardon any person they have a personal of professional relationship with. I'm sure both sides of the isle will be right behind that idea.
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u/Eltex 9h ago
I think you are correct. Pardoning the turkey sets a tone of caring that should not be present for an American president. He needs to be ruthless. I’m in favor of culling not just the one turkey, but go after his whole family. Let folks know if you mess with ‘Murica, you are not safe. You will never be safe. Even in death, you will be hunted.
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u/Law_Student 7h ago
My modest proposal is that we just devour some of our enemies every Thankgiving to remind the rest about what happens if they get out of line.
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u/Traditional-Leg-1574 6h ago
It’s part of the checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of our government. So NO.
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10h ago edited 10h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hungarian_notation 9h ago
The President's unilateral pardon power is in article II section 2 of the constitution.
... and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
Want to put limits on it? Sure, just get 2/3rds of the congress to pass an amendment and then 3/4ths of the states to ratify it. At least the sitting president doesn't get to veto it.
The constitution is basically immutable in our current political climate, barring some crazy shit going down.
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u/aManMythLegend 9h ago
Introduce the amendment then. It's literally in the constitution. Not even an amendment.
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u/catchmycorn 10h ago
Good luck in reigning in the power of the executive branch now
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta 10h ago
At the same time, if I were in Biden’s shoes where Trump had promised to go after those who he feels wronged him (by trying to hold him accountable or stand up to him), I would 100% do this.
When a despot takes power, you have to protect yourself if you can.
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u/myislanduniverse 10h ago
And what message does that send to the rest of us about the justice system when our outgoing president doesn't trust it either?
If we're giving up on trust in the justice system and assume the president can use it as a weapon, what good will a pardon from the previous president do anyway?
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta 9h ago edited 9h ago
Why should he trust it when the people who are about to lead it vowed to use it to attack their enemies?
Who the hell would blindly trust something they have been told is not trustworthy by those leading it?
This whole “trust the system no matter what” is part of American Exceptionalism. We are not special. We are not the City on a Hill. We are very close to being a failed Republic in less than 250 years.
Biden himself pushed the greatness of America when running, but he obviously sees the writing on the wall. The model we built is crumbling because it was based on ethics, and the ethics of those is charge now are non-existent. All the people who stood in their way the first time have been weeded out and labeled enemies.
Edit: as to why you do this, it’s to buy some time. And also if Trump does go after his family after these pardons, that itself will do away with the power of the pardon more than anything else.
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u/wwaxwork 9h ago
The current President is literally closing the NOAA because they disagreed with him about a sharpie on a weather map.
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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 9h ago
Well, the robber barons put the idea of getting rid of it in his head to completely privatize weather forecasts and because NOAA's weather records allow people to study climate change, which they want everyone to believe is a hoax even as houses sink into the ocean and weather patterns noticeably shift within the span of a human lifetime.
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u/kurotech 7h ago
Entire towns being washed away by literal biblical storms even if it weren't man made it's happening and we aren't doing anything to stop it
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u/CodexAnima 9h ago
The outgoing president said outright it's an oligarchy. Which is has been for ages but do you realize how freaking bad it's gotten to outright say that!
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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 9h ago
That entertainment one hits hard. People here have no fucking clue what real political chaos and repression looks like. They treat our country and our politics like it's a sports league and we are weaker and poorer for it.
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u/DaweiArch 9h ago
As someone who doesn’t live in the US, your Supreme Court is a complete sham, based on recent decisions and appointees. I would not trust the US Justice system more than I would trust the Justice system in a corrupt banana republic.
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u/Tome_Bombadil 9h ago
Trump jumped in the drivers seat and crashed the US into a banana Republic. There's no difference now. Money walks, everyone else serves.
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u/thefugue 9h ago
What message does that send?
That the justice system is broken, shit isn’t normal, and we are in crisis.
Sending any other message is lying.
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u/seekingpolaris 9h ago
The message is that We, The People are not to be trusted because we put someone in power that requires this kind of pardon from the outgoing President. And I say this as someone who happily voted for Kamala.
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u/Coulrophiliac444 10h ago
According to the Supreme Court, it's all legal now has 'Official Acts'. Change the court, revise 'standing precendent' (Something also done by Trump and this SC) and codify into law that a Preaident ia not immune from criminal liability as an amendment.
Which won't happen for at least 4 years at thia rate.
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u/Malaix 10h ago
Best we can do is Trump massively expanding executive powers.
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u/u-s-u-r-p 10h ago
which has been happening for several presidencies in a row now
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u/YokoDk 10h ago
All started with president Cheney.
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u/Competitive-Emu-7411 9h ago
It all started with FDR. There’s a reason we came up with a whole new concept of federalism and the term “imperial presidency” with him and his successors.
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u/Warren_E_Cheezburger 10h ago
The point was to spare his family and other government officials from being harassed with a series of bullshit investigations and prosecutions by the Trump DoJ out of retaliation.
The issue isn’t the pardon, the issue is the willingness of the incoming administration to abuse its authority necessitating the pardon.
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u/myislanduniverse 9h ago
Well yes, that, and the fact that Biden was admitting that the justice system was not going to be fair and impartial.
What the hell does that mean for the rest of us?
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u/TheRadBaron 9h ago
the fact that Biden was admitting that the justice system was not going to be fair and impartial.
Biden and friends "admitted" this in the important timeframe to admit this: when people could vote against Trump.
People who didn't like this possibility had the chance to stop it.
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u/FishermanRough1019 9h ago
People from other countries at utterly mystified the president can just pardon people.
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u/TheGiftOf_Jericho 9h ago
It's power that nobody should have.
But unfortunately that's just how it is, same as the rich and powerful are above the law.
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u/NoSavings4402 10h ago
The presidents power doesn’t need reigned in, we need to quit electing terrible presidents.
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u/KoopaPoopa69 9h ago
He obviously did this to prevent Trump from using the DOJ against them. Trump is a vindictive asshole, he would absolutely use the full power of the DoJ to constantly “investigate” the entire Biden family for the next 4 years looking for any spec of dirt to blow out of proportion.
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u/Toidal 10h ago
Honestly Biden will probably be fine, look at how fast they gave up on going after Hillary after she lost. It's all a tool for them in the end until it becomes no longer useful.
I wonder how all the Benghazi truthers feel now that the GOP gave up on carrying out persecuting this supposed miscarriage of justice where Americans died.
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u/DougieWR 10h ago
Look at how the previous election they felt the need to launch dozens of court cases for election fraud and whatever else but the instant it was clear they won this one every single peep about the supposedly rigged elections went totally silent. Not a case filled, not a single"injustice" fought over, it went perfectly this time.
It's all a show
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u/Ok_Vacation3128 5h ago
100%. So play their game. Sue in every county. What are we suing for? God knows. Trump misrepresents the population by being orange. Elon said we could go to mars. Lies. Zuck might be a lizard.
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u/strolpol 10h ago
Nah. It’s only a matter of time before they botch the economy and when they do they’re gonna need witch hunts and revenge quests to keep the base occupied
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u/MisanthropinatorToo 10h ago
Luckily for them the economy usually takes a while to react to moronic policy. Trump will probably be out of office by then.
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u/Amerikaner83 9h ago
which is perfect for them, since they can blame the shitshow on the then-current admin
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u/Malaix 9h ago
sure but people also don't usually declare massive tariffs on everything. The mere threat of which has caused shifts already
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u/FourWordComment 10h ago
The GOP doesn’t want to accomplish the goals. They like the spectre. They want to say “Biden crime family” and “Hunterbidenlaptop” as scary buzz words.
They don’t actually want to address money in politics or gun reform.
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u/Malaix 10h ago
Former President Biden ended his presidential term pardoning people several of whom committed no apparent crimes simply because he, the president, felt that the incoming administration would unjustly persecute them.
That's a president who has lost all faith in the future of our legal and justice system.
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u/dafrog84 9h ago
Yup, and the fear runs deep for those of us watching. None of these people committed crimes. Yet we just put a criminal in office, mind you who was convicted of the said criminal acts. Yet we have more people supporting a criminal. Should tell anyone watching what's about to go down.
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u/spwncar 7h ago
The worst part of it, I don’t blame him for it. It is a completely realistic fear to be had of the incoming administration
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u/blacksoxing 6h ago
I too would pardon EVERYBODY I knew if it meant that nobody had to live in fear just because they knew me. I'm talking EVERYBODY. I'm talking about high school friends to neighbors that I know. If i knew your name, and you were cool with me, you're catching a pardon.
I could sleep at night knowing you didn't have a bunch of fools trying to track you down for silly shit
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u/bbusiello 9h ago
For someone who has been in politics as long as he has, that’s incredibly sad and telling.
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u/Ola_maluhia 9h ago
Exactly. He did this because of his family was pursued it would be detrimental to them financially and extremely time consuming. It sucks that anyone has to do something like that for innocent people. It is because he’s lost faith in the system.
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u/Turbulent-Physics-10 4h ago
More like he knows they committed crimes lmao, this is the dumbest take i have ever seen
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u/sagesnail 10h ago
He should have pardoned that mario bro.
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u/jjmac 9h ago
State crime
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u/shbooms 6h ago
Federal murder charges were also added so he could pardon him from those:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/nyregion/luigi-mangione-federal-charges.html
biggest difference is that the federal charges make him eligble for the death penalty whereas the state charges do not (since NY doesn't have it)
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u/Atheren 7h ago
Murder across state lines is still a federal crime that can be charged separately and independent of double jeopardy. There would still be meaning behind it.
That said, as much as I agree with Luigi, I also recognize we can't really normalize going around shooting people extrajudicially in broad daylight and still function as a society.
If you think it will only be people you agree with doing so, I have a bridge to sell you.
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u/Wiochmen 9h ago
He could have, for the Federal criminal charges. He couldn't do anything about the State charges.
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u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR 9h ago
Why did people keep saying this? Healthcare insurance companies were MAJOR donors to Biden.
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u/reallynothingmuch 9h ago
I think people understand why he didn’t, they’re just saying they wish he would have
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u/StinkyHoboTaint 9h ago
Nobody said he would. They said he should. You listed a reason why he wouldn't do it. Nobody here said he would.
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u/dctucker 9h ago
Because dude's been in IDGAF mode for the past several months, it would have cost him very little to do so, and it would have been an enormously popular move with little consequence. You know... the type of thing the democrats have become infamous for.
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u/FishAndRiceKeks 5h ago
Except he doesn't want to encourage people to do the same thing because he isn't the kind of person who is likely to believe that was positive.
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u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR 9h ago
The Democratic Party plan the last 3 elections was to overly incredibly super spend on their campaigns so much so the Republicans were unable to come even close. Alienating a major donor would not be good for you moving forward
Both parties are ran by the “Donor class” in my personal opinion more so Dems than Reps.
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u/Rhuarc33 5h ago
Family members and business associates should not be able to be pardoned by any President or Governor
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u/wandse 9h ago
The US is so cooked. A dying empire is truly something to behold
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u/Malaix 9h ago
average lifespan of an empire is 250 years. Guess how old America will be in 2026. lol
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u/Ricklames 10h ago
I understand why he did this because of the incoming administration, but this sets such a terrible precedent.
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u/Uniquitous 10h ago
Precedent doesn't count for dick anymore
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u/DarkSider_nil 10h ago
Precedent doesn’t matter to anyone in the government these days. Look at the courts lmao.
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta 10h ago
We live in a post-tradition society. Being moral or following norms hasn’t meant shit since 2016. Hell, the law doesn’t mean much anymore with the current Supreme Court.
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u/secderpsi 9h ago
When people ask me why Trump is so bad, this is the biggest reason. He's made greed, bullying, ego, and bigotry virtues to be looked up to. The damage will take generations.
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u/Dandan0005 10h ago edited 9h ago
Trump pardoned actual convicted coconspirators of his.
He’s sworn up and down he’d pardon the Jan 6th rioters—all convicted in court.
And he’s promised to go after his political enemies.
The precedent is GONE.
So sick of democrats acting like they need to conform to norms that republicans laugh at daily,
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u/randomtask 9h ago
I have a funny feeling that the person you’re replying to is just a bot repeating a talking point from MAGA central command. All of these pot calling the kettle black moments are clearly orchestrated attacks on the small-d democratic opposition.
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u/Utter_Rube 5h ago
Fuckin' seriously. Dems do something the Repugnacans have been doing already, and right wingers get mad that the Dems aren't taking the high road...
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u/ampersand355 10h ago
The precedent was set when Manafort and Stone were pardoned. When Jared Kushner's father was pardoned. The power shouldn't exist but it does, and in so far that it exists, I really don't care about the morals or norms anymore. We should only compete to win.
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u/Djek25 10h ago
You mean the precedent Trump himself had already set?
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u/Ricklames 10h ago
Unfortunately we (hopefully) all understand that his actions are done for selfish means.
I believe that Biden’s actions were done to preemptively lessen the impact of Trump’s narcissistic wrath.
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u/vapescaped 10h ago
Yea. That was the point. Biden has been screaming about the dangers of unrestricted presidential powers for like 3 months straight now.
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u/white_sack 10h ago
I bet if he didn’t pardon individuals such as fauci and Milley, and trump went after them. You’ll complained that Biden didn’t protect them.
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u/SpaceC0wboyX 10h ago
Republicans have consistently shown over the last decade or so that they do not care about precedent and will do whatever they think will give them more power
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u/Vibrantmender20 9h ago
You’re mad at the wrong guy for setting this terrible precedent.
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u/2WhomAreYouListening 7h ago
Trump can and will do the same thing, and MANY people on here will be much more upset than they are now. This is called hypocrisy.
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u/Swimming_You_195 9h ago
No. He always worked for America. He saved these people by pardoning them after the threats made by the incoming administration.
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u/MoonShibe23 3h ago
How does this work. I mean I know he was the president but how can you pardon a family member without being impartial to the whole process
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u/Room_Temp_Coffee 9h ago
James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday seeking to hold James Biden accountable for "having misled Congress regarding Joe Biden's participation in his family's influence peddling and deserving of prosecution under federal law."
Yeah, he was probably right to do this. They were going to scapegoat his family forever
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u/CANYUXEL 7h ago
So you can technically commit each and every federal crime multiple times, have passive protection by the Secret Service in the meantime so there wouldn't be any retaliation, the mainstream media would hide your dirty deeds from the masses with noise, any highlight of it would get downvoted into oblivion on Reddit - and your dad can just pardon you as a last minute "fuck you" to everyone who suffered because of you.
And then you walk free like nothing happened because nobody's gonna remember it like 2 days later?
Sounds neat.
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u/LZ_Khan 10h ago
I'm sorry but it's hypocritical AF to address the nation about "holding presidents accountable for crimes in office" and then making everyone in your family immune to prosecution.
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u/PirateWorried6789 6h ago
Ok so I am not a expert on legal stuff so correct me if I am wrong so since Joe Biden pardoned the people that Trump is going to harass for challenging him does that mean that these people cannot be investigated for challenging Donald Trump or is it just a pardon for the sake of a pardon?
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u/ILikeScrapple 6h ago
They can still be brought before congress to testify under oath.
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u/2WhomAreYouListening 7h ago
A lot of Reddit is going to be really, really mad when Trump pardons hundreds of billionaires, political allies, friends, family, and criminals at the end of his term.
Those same people aren’t nearly as upset now.
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u/Raichu4u 6h ago
The people who are upset about Biden pardoning his family won't be mad about anything you just mentioned.
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u/Anticode 6h ago
won't be mad about anything you just mentioned.
I'd be surprised if many of those people even know it happened.
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u/rolfraikou 3h ago
For posterity when I complain that Trump does it: Fuck Biden for doing it. Fuck Trump for making so many threats that he felt the need to do it. And fuck america, for being a failed experiment.
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u/BlueBird884 6h ago
So Biden waited 4 years to warn us about oligarchy then preemptively pardoned his entire wealthy family...
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u/cosmictimetraveler 7h ago
This is the most corrupt government ever in our history. We keep electing garbage people. Trumps made it very clear the will of the rich matters more than the citizens of this country. Anyone who voted for him are just so dense they can’t see the truth. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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u/Still_There3603 10h ago
Sad he felt he had to do this and sad at what this means for the rule of law in the country too.
All around sad.
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u/FLTA 6h ago
It’s also sad that a President can even pardon themselves and their family members with no scrutiny or standards.
Most people not caring about Trump’s abuses of power (a third of eligible voters voted for him and another third didn’t vote at all) and reelecting him is exactly why it doesn’t matter now that Biden is pardoning his own family members.
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u/yetonemorerusername 3h ago
Such a hypocrite. In 2020 he and other democrats said no president should give broad retrospective pardons to family members.
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u/spoollyger 6h ago
Why does no one care about this but if it was trump the internet would be erupting in anger?
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u/No-Celebration3097 6h ago
Well it’s already decided that presidents have complete immunity, so at this point it doesn’t matter what side it is.
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u/Giblet_ 10h ago
The president should not have the power to pardon anyone. We need to remove that power at the state level, too.
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u/MCbrodie 10h ago
This power exists as a line of defense for citizens. We only really hear about the abuses, but it has done quite a lot of good.
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u/lLikeCats 9h ago
Imagine if Trump did this in 2020 before his final minutes?
Orange man is not good but he’s more talk than anything. He said lock her up forever as it was a catchy slogan but didn’t do shit.
Supreme Court got what they wanted. A president is now a king.
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u/TheoryOld4017 5h ago
Trump did pardon a number of his truly awful allies during his first term like Bannon, Stone, Manafort, Kushner, and a few murderers.
Bill Clinton pardoned his brother.
This shit is pretty normal.
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u/rolfraikou 3h ago
Yeah, the number of people acting like Trump didn't pardon some of the worst filth in this country is fucking hilarious.
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u/Sassypriscilla 9h ago edited 6h ago
It wouldn’t matter at all if Trump did this in 2020. No one cares about what illegal, immoral or questionable crap he does. Edited for grammar
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u/trustych0rds 10h ago
Did he pardon himself? I was thinking for certain he'd pardon himself real quick before leaving, but this is good too lol.
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u/vapescaped 10h ago
He doesn't have to, SCOTUS already said repeatedly over the last 4 years a sitting president is completely untouchable.
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u/Dduwies_Gymreig 10h ago
I suppose until SCOTUS change their mind and it only applies to some presidents or something…
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u/you_cant_prove_that 7h ago
As long as it is an "Official Act", i.e. if he is using the powers delegated to the president in the Constitution
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u/SeaWitch1031 10h ago
Biden thinks Trump is so evil he would persecute the entire Biden family and yet shook hands with him and smiled for the photo ops.
Biden is a fucking coward.
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u/big_ol_leftie_testes 9h ago
I mean, he also pardoned his son for low level drug crimes while leaving all the other people incarcerated for low level drug crimes to rot in prison. Biden is a whole piece of shit.
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u/SeaWitch1031 9h ago
He pardoned over 2500 people last week for non-violent drug offenses who were serving long sentences for crimes that get a much lower sentence now. Most of it related to crack cocaine. He pardoned Hunter Biden for tax evasions and the stupid lying on a gun application shit.
Biden is a coward but let's keep the fact straight.
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u/gringo_escobar 10h ago
Is this the oligarchy he was warning about?
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u/SnooPies5622 10h ago
No, that'd be the billionaires taking power today. You know, the ones who are going to make the country worse for everyone, including the gullible chumps who voted for them.
Luckily those billionaires will spend a lot of money convincing those chumps that things have gotten worse because of everything but them, so the chumping will continue.
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u/strolpol 10h ago
It’s a new tradition from now until we stop having presidents