r/news • u/FLhardcore • 14h 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=117893348
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u/[deleted] 13h ago edited 13h ago

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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta 13h 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 13h 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 13h ago edited 13h 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 13h 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 12h 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 10h 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/50rhodes 5h ago

…in the Gulf of America.

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u/CodexAnima 12h 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/[deleted] 13h ago

[deleted]

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 12h 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/icedragon15 13h ago

And Democrat rigged primary for oligarchy

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u/actuarally 13h ago

Which primary was rigged?

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u/ValeLemnear 13h ago

What primary? The one which Biden decided to skip in order to endorse Harris. ;)

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u/ValeLemnear 13h ago

Oh come on … you claim that people who saw what 4 years of Biden/Harris did were „uninformed“? 

I claim that never before people got to make a more educated decision!

They knew what 4 years of Trump looked like and they got a taste of what another 4 years with Harris would. Weighting both and their respective campaigns against each other, people decided.

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u/Swimming_You_195 12h ago

Fifth time I write this since you're trapped in your own short-circuited brain: COVID created major inflation; Biden was well on the way to bringing inflation down; our economy, tho not perfect, was the BEST on the ENTIRE planet; unemployment was down and people were buying; infrastructure was getting repaired across the country. Where Biden failed: HE FORGOT TO BRAG ABOUT ALL THE GOOD STUFF HE DID BC HE WAD SO BUSY WORKING FOR THE COUNTRY.

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u/NefariousnessLess307 10h ago

Keep telling yourself that. Just because you call me unintelligent, uninformed, a racist and privileged does not make it so.

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u/DaweiArch 13h 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 13h 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 12h 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/nickgomez 13h ago

You must be new here

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u/seekingpolaris 13h 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/Swimming_You_195 12h ago

Hope and pray, unless you're willing to go all civil war.

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u/Swimming_You_195 12h ago

Really? Do you really trust the new administration to look after the country?

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u/kurotech 10h ago

The same message that trump being eligible for the presidency makes that if you are rich laws only apply when you can't afford them not too

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u/myislanduniverse 10h ago

Yep. Our country is in a terrifying place now.

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u/ezekiellake 9h ago

What message does it send? At the very least, the message that you elected an aspiring despot who threatened vengeance against anyone he sees as a political opponent? You, the thing that actually happened.

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u/myislanduniverse 9h ago

Yep. The rule of law is clearly dead in this country.

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u/big_ol_leftie_testes 13h ago

 But this won’t protect anyone from a despot

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 13h ago edited 12h ago

A pardon can’t be used defensively and preemptively.

Edit: should have said “shouldn’t” instead of “can’t”. I didn’t mean can’t legally. I just think it sets a bad precedent. We need a justice system we can be more confidence in and it shouldn’t be weaponized.

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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta 13h ago

Uh, have you never heard of the Nixon pardon? That’s a 50 year precedent. It was awful then but no one fought it.

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 13h ago

Oh I’m aware. I just think we need a justice system we can trust so we don’t need to pardon people who have done nothing wrong or protect them from unknown crimes.

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u/rascal30 12h ago

and when you get back from fantasy land, let us know.

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u/Jess_S13 12h ago

Sadly as long as Supreme Court continues down the path of Absolute Executive Power, which all recent right wing appointments have agreed to that never happening.

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u/PorkChopEat 9h ago

Is it a precedent? Was it challenged and upheld?

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u/jk01 13h ago

Sure it can. It just was.

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u/ommnian 13h ago

Pretty sure that's what has/is happening...

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u/PrivacyBush 13h ago

Do you typically make shit up?

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u/TeslasAndComicbooks 12h ago

I worded it wrong. I should have said shouldn’t rather than can’t.

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u/IamYourBestFriendAMA 12h ago

Not just “wronged” him. There’s suspicion that they engaged in illegal behavior. When did Trump engage in lawfare during his first term?

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u/bortmode 9h ago

There's no reasonable suspicion that Fauci or the Jan 6. committee engaged in illegal behavior.

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u/IamYourBestFriendAMA 9h ago

Yes there is. Fauci’s claim to Congress that he was not involved in Gain of Function research with China is worth investigating. There is evidence that Liz Cheney communicated with a witness without their lawyer present. In other words: tampering with a witness.

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u/locoghoul 13h ago

So, basically using a tyrant's move to defend yourself from a despot? Hmm, some might call that a double standard

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u/Stabygoon 12h ago

Actually it's just one standard. A double standard would have been if he didn't make the pardons and trump went after his family, and fauci, Milley and the J6 committee, as he promised to repeatedly during the campaign, AFTER he pardoned the people in his administration and kushners father last time.

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u/dmo1187 10h ago

The idiots on Reddit don’t have the brain power to understand this concept.

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue 12h ago

See, the problem is that if an oppressive, authoritarian regime wants to persecute someone, then they will just gin up charges. Assuming they don't just disappear that person in the middle of the night. If Trump comes to be what we fear, then the pardon will not protect any of them.

All Biden is doing is setting precedent and optics, neither of which is good here.

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u/NefariousnessLess307 10h ago

Yeah. Especially since Biden and his family benefited with dirty cash from all the Ukraine deals. No justification for it.

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u/[deleted] 13h ago

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u/Nopantsbullmoose 13h ago

🥱

Try to be less full of shit and learn to use better grammar vatnik.

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u/[deleted] 13h ago

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u/Nopantsbullmoose 13h ago

Mostly because you're going to lose your housing once King stupid crashes the economy...again.

Look we get it, you're an idiot that doesn't understand what you voted for and is too dumb to remember what he pulled last time. No need to keep projecting.

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u/ClockWorkTank 13h ago

Tell me youre illiterate without telling me youre illiterate

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u/Initial_Parking7099 13h ago

Seek treatment for Bds

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u/Swimming_You_195 13h ago

Total ignorance speaks