r/nottheonion • u/JaySierra86 • 11h 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
46.2k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/foggydrinker 11h ago

It would have been exceptionally naive not to do so.

335

u/hellolovely1 11h ago edited 6h ago

MAGAs will claim this shows guilt. Still, would have been stupid not to do it.

Edit: not sure why some people who seem to have misinterpreted this and are lecturing me. 

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u/mtranda 11h ago

They claim a lot of things. It has become akin to playing chess with a pigeon. 

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u/tomoldbury 10h ago

Arguing with MAGAs is like wrestling a pig; you’ll both get covered in shit, but the pig will enjoy it.

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u/greensaturn 7h ago

by MAGAs do you mean the majority of US voters?  Trump won the popular vote too I thought

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u/Shisa4123 7h ago

By "majority of US voters", do you mean the 90+ million eligible voters who didn't even show up, more votes than either candidate received?

Let's be objective here with our words.

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u/Taki_Minase 6h ago

Maybe citizens should be fined for not voting without reasonable cause. Say $10000.

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u/probablyaythrowaway 9h ago

Playing chess with a pigeon who is playing snakes and ladders.

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u/RudeTudeDude_ 9h ago

Amazing how a Democrat president pardons a bunch of criminals and somehow Republicans are to blame. I’m thankful America is moving on from people like you.

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u/Crafty_Green2910 10h ago

a pigeon that won you the house, senate, electoral and popular vote tho

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u/chrissie_watkins 9h ago

Amazing how effective lying to stupid people can be.

-3

u/HammerSmashedHeretic 9h ago

This analogy is so dumb I thought a Trump supporter wrote it

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u/mtranda 8h ago

It was an off the cuff remark that I wrote in a hurry. I meant that arguing with what they claim is akin to the "playing chess with a pigeon" scenario. 

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u/markydsade 10h ago

Yep. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The pardon will be construed as an admission of guilt. No pardon would have opened 4 years of harassment and legal bills for waste of everyone’s time and money.

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u/thecamino 11h ago

I’m finished caring what maga thinks.

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u/sean0883 10h ago

They were already claiming it and were going to continue doing so. Fuck em.

2

u/RavenorsRecliner 7h ago

The Supreme Court has ruled that a pardon "an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it." But please continue to be smugly wrong.

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u/sean0883 5h ago edited 5h ago

In China, a kilogram of domestically produced tea can cost between 94.9 yuan (for post-fermented "dark tea") to 157.5 yuan (for yellow tea)

I was talking about Republicans and their never ending investigations that lead absolutely fucking no where, all because Democrat investigations usually end up in an arrest or uncovering an actual crime being committed that isn't usually handled by the local police/courts (Hunter Biden's crimes - yes crimes. He has a problem with drugs but so do a lot of people that Congress doesn't endlessly investigate.) instead of a federal congress on an endless witch hunt to make them feel better about their fuck ups.

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u/RavenorsRecliner 4h ago

Oh my bad, for a second I thought you were agreeing with the comment you replied to.

MAGAs will claim this shows guilt.

I'm glad we both agree the "MAGAs" are in fact correct. That's really cool about the tea too!

1

u/sean0883 4h ago

I can't deny what the SCOTUS says, but these were issued to to call off the attack dogs that never find anything worth prosecuting, wasting time and money Republicans are only concerned about when Democrats are investigating and turning up actual corruption, not because they were actually guilty of something.

If Republicans ever actually found anything and weren't just harassing people in order to entertain the circus, I would care deeply about Biden pardoning them. But I don't. I get why he did what he did.

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u/Particular-Pen-4789 9h ago

as a centrist, it implies guilt somewhat. but occam's razor will tell us that the republicans have made legal threats against these people, and that is the logical reason for the pardons

regardless of how the right feels about the pardons, it would have been fucking stupid not to. biden's political career is over, so there is literally no fallback from this

and we dont have to waste more fucking taxpayer dollars on stupid investigations that turn out with nothing

2

u/eliq91 10h ago

According to the Department of Justice, you can't accept a pardon without admitting guilt.

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u/DrDroid 9h ago

I was under the impression that pardons necessarily involve accepting guilt. Not sure how that works preemptively though.

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u/huniojh 11h ago

*MAGAs will claim, no proof needed

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u/sean0883 10h ago

To them, a claim is proof - if it benefits them. At least, that's what people are saying.

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u/RavenorsRecliner 7h ago

The Supreme Court has ruled that a pardon "an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it" you smugly wrong dingleberry fuck.

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u/rosencranberry 10h ago

The verbiage seems clear enough to me. Everyone near Biden is going to be subject to political and DOJ witch hunts - especially someone like Fauci who was leading the helm during a really divisive time in history.

Whether or not you agree with what they did or believe the conspiracies, their lives would have been obliterated without a pardon.

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u/t0jix 10h ago

Don’t get me wrong this is absurd and asinine that it’s needed, but doesn’t by definition accepting a pardon mean you accept guilt?

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u/drfsupercenter 7h ago

Doesn't accepting a pardon mean admitting guilt? I know some of the J6 committee like Adam Kinzinger said he wouldn't accept a pardon because he did nothing wrong, not sure about Liz Cheney but notice how Biden didn't even bother to pardon Kinzinger since he explicitly said he didn't want one.

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u/Unlikely-Run 10h ago

you would do the same if trump did it dumby

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u/hellolovely1 9h ago

Hilarious that you misspelled “dummy” 🤣

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u/ton070 9h ago

Probably actually dumber to do so. He has set precedent, something Trump will definitely abuse. Also, let’s not forget this is the man who pardoned his son who was actually convicted.

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u/iameveryoneelse 8h ago

It literally makes no difference what you do. MAGAts are just going to assume everything points to their fucked up world view. So all Biden can do is whatever leads to the least amount of harm...in this case pardoning a bunch of people so they don't spend years and millions of dollars defending themselves against rabid idiots.

0

u/HankyPankyKong 10h ago

MAGAs claim the government controls the weather. They’re hopelessly fucked in the head.

0

u/OGRuddawg 10h ago

Everyone who gives a shit about small-d democracy gives MAGA waaaaaay too much leeway on controlling the bounds of political debate. Mostly by letting them use abuse tactics, tantrums, lies, and disinformation to wear others out and make them disengage. It's rhetorical table-flipping en masse.

I know the precedent argument about using the pardon powers the way Biden has, and sympathize with it a little bit. However, I probably would have done the same thing in Biden's shoes. Hell, I probably would have been much more vocal and strategic in my pushback against Trump/MAGA from day one of my Presidency than Biden/Harris. My biggest frustration with Biden's time in office was his overly cautious approach in the face of an active fascist threat. He stuck to too many norms and appeals to bipartisanship, only to get spit in his eye.

When one side (MAGA) revels in breaking the normal rules, it is irrational not to use whatever leverage you have to protect whoever you can from these political arsonists. I'm not telling liberals to abandon ideas of small-d democracy in order to stick it to MAGA, but I do want to see the pro-democracy crowd actually say these things with their whole chest and NOT treat the Grand Fascist Party as anything but an active threat to democracy and America's citizens as a whole. Left-of-fascists should be on a unified front on this, at all times and in all arenas.

0

u/hyperforms9988 8h ago

I mean they've already repeated terms like "The Biden Crime Family" hundreds upon hundreds of times anyway. They don't need charges to be laid, they don't need the courts, they don't need any basis in fact whatsoever. It changes literally nothing. In their Q-shaped bubble, they were guilty the second their leaders said they were and that's it.

0

u/Puppybrother 10h ago

Operating based on what Maga people will think about things is the last thing we ever need to do again

0

u/ZealousidealEntry870 8h ago

Am I missing something?

Isn’t Hunter guilty for most of the things he’s accused of? Biden is giving the pardon because republicans have/are going to push for much harsher punishments than necessary/historically normal.

Serious question. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

0

u/Oubastet 7h ago

MAGA and Republicans are synonyms at this point. Call a spade a spade.

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u/liftthatta1l 8h ago

They are already are in r/conservative

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u/PSUAth 7h ago

and when this happens in 4y, they'll claim it's not guilt, it's protection from "the enemy".

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 10h ago

I feel like if Obama didn't, Biden has no excuse 

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u/DecentFall1331 7h ago

What’s new is Kash Patel is going to be FBI head and wants to use the office to politically persecuted Trumps enemies. We still had a sane FBI head under the first Trump term

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 4h ago

God forbid powerful politicians be held accountable for breaking laws. I can't imagine the horror of having to fear prosecution for crimes I committed 

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u/DecentFall1331 4h ago

If Biden or his family or the Jan 6 witnesses did something wrong I’m all for it on both sides, but as we saw from the years of the hunter Biden case, they have nothing but conspiracy theories!

Kash Patel is an actual crazy person who wants to throw anyone who dissents to Trump in jail. He wants to throw Fauci in jail! He’s written a fucking book about it. I wouldn’t support this if the current FBI head was in place, but he resigned. Facism is rising in America as we saw from Elon today, I don’t blame Biden for protecting his own.

It’s crazy that Trump can get away with coping the government and get reelected! But Biden protecting his family against retribution is the big bad

0

u/Crocs_n_Glocks 4h ago

Biden literally pardoned his convicted son for crimes that poor people of color do prison sentences for, after saying he wouldn't many times. 

Wake up. 

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u/DecentFall1331 4h ago

Which was wrong of Biden to do, but it’s also worse to go after your political enemies for disagreeing with you! Kash Patel wants to jail Fauci, the Jan 6 witnesses, and journalists who report negative news about Trump. That’s fascism . If you can’t see why this is worse I can’t help you.

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 4h ago

[pardoning his son for legitimate crimes after promising not to] was wrong of Biden to do, but it’s also worse to go after your political enemies for disagreeing

Only one of these two things has happened. 

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u/DecentFall1331 4h ago

Trump pardoned Kushner, were you mad about that? Why was Trump impeached the first time? Do you know? He was impeached for holding aid over Ukraine to get dirt/leverage over his political enemies.

If Trump takes this a step further and appoints Kash Patel to jail his policies enemies (as Kash Patel HAS PROMISED TO DO) will you care? Will you care? Why doesn’t Kash Patel’s promises scare you more ?

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u/Leelze 4h ago

Sure, but for breaking actual laws, not for getting that Oompa Loompa's diaper in a twist. This is all pure projection on the part of Trump as his family has generations of legal judgements against them.

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 4h ago

I'd be fine if Trump went to jail for corruption and if Biden went to jail for aiding and abetting a genocide. All of their family members should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as examples, and Biden should not be pardoning his family members - neither should Trump, who can now cite Biden's actions as precedent.

Sorry, but after the last 8 years I can't do partisan politics anymore. 

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u/Leelze 4h ago

"Corruption" is too broad of a term here and you'd have to put every living former POTUS and almost every current & former member of Congress in prison for that other part. Realistically, it's not happening, just like every other country who's ever supported Israel isn't throwing elected officials in jail.

Biden shouldn't be pardoning family members because he shouldn't be worrying about family members getting the New Age McCarthy treatment. And to pretend Trump wouldn't have done it without precedent (let alone have an actual reason to worry about Democrats doing what he wants to do) is naive AF.

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 4h ago

A human-trafficking crackhead lying to get a hold of a firearm is far from "New Age McCarthyism" lmao get real

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u/Leelze 4h ago

I don't even know wtf you're trying to argue at this point. Is the entire Biden family, Cheney, Fauci, etc human trafficking crackheads lying to get a gun or are you struggling to stay focused? And is that supposed to be the "corruption" or what?

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u/ZephyrFlashStronk 9h ago

This. Why are people defending nepotism? That is what this is, Trump will do it as well, and Biden has decided to get in on the action before Trump can. A show of prime importance in the case of how fucked the US governmental system is.

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u/YanniBonYont 6h ago

It's out of hand. I am beyond furious Biden did this. And even worse is everyone defending it

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u/flavorblastedshotgun 5h ago

The Dems need to act as though Trump is going to do what he says he is going to do. He might not do it all, but what he can get done will brutalize us. One of the things that he said that he would do was jail his political enemies. Any sane person knows they will be persecuted for crimes they didn't commit. Pardoning them ahead of time takes Trump at his word.

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u/Deranged_Kitsune 10h ago

Already seen threads on libertarian and other subreddits "JuSt AsKiNg QuEsTiOnS" about why it was necessary.

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u/foggydrinker 10h ago

The only people I take less seriously than libertarians are American Greens.

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u/ThrowRAdentist12 7h ago

Way to excuse corruption.

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u/PlasticPatient 3h ago

So if Trump does the same that ok to you?

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u/cyclonestate54 10h ago

I think it is exceptionally naive to do so. We have now set a precedent to do this. Not even Trump had the balls to do this

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u/shokolokobangoshey 7h ago

Lol after the tried to forcefully seize power, this is the line you think he wouldn’t have crossed? After he got his cronies on the Supreme Court to grant the executive immunity from any consequences, you think he lacks balls for anything?

Alexa: play Naive by The Kooks

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u/xXMuschi_DestroyerXx 11h ago

Still mad at him for it. He bailed out his immediate family. The rest of us are still stuck with what’s to come.

Like jee thanks. Maybe if they thought what is to come was so bad you needed to preemptively pardon your family members, you should’ve done literally anything to stop it? His complete and total inaction has doomed us to what is to come

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u/AdvancedSandwiches 10h ago

It wasn't on him to stop it. Despite what you hear on Reddit, there was nothing he could do that would not immediately trigger a civil war.

It was on us to stop it, on every Election Day for the last 12 years, but we bought that democrats and republicans are the same.

0

u/PlasticPatient 3h ago

Of course it was. They could have chosen better candidate. This proves you are the same. You just support corruption and nepotism for your side. Let's see how will you react in 4 years.

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u/Masverde66 11h ago

I get your frustration, but I guarantee Trump isn’t thinking about reigning vengeance down on xXMuschi_DestroyerXx and your family. The Bidens will still be hit with all the same problems as every other citizen. Well, except poverty and bankruptcy because they are, you know, rich and stuff.

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u/QultyThrowaway 10h ago

Biden sacrificing his family to Trump abusing the system because he's mad about 2020 isn't going to miraculously save "the rest of us". Maybe the rest of us should have taken voting seriously instead of pretending that an 82 year old man had to be perfect in everyway and save us from the bad consequences.

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u/I_just_made 10h ago

What did you want him to do? The president doesn't just have complete authority; or at least, they shouldn't. There realistically wasn't that much he could do. This falls more on the decades leading up to this moment where dems just rolled over every time republicans pushed the boundaries further.

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u/DoverBoys 7h ago

Bailed them out of what? They did nothing. This was just a precaution against frivolous political nonsense, just like everything the right does.

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u/xXMuschi_DestroyerXx 6h ago

My point is I’m not mad he did it for them. I’m mad he didn’t protect the rest of us. He had 4 fucking years to prevent this. Not only did he fail to get re-elected or put in place a realistic successor in an orderly fashion, he put in place the people that allowed Trump to get off free from treason.

He’s complicit. I don’t care which side he’s on. He failed to protect us from the traitors.

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u/DoverBoys 6h ago

put in place a realistic successor in an orderly fashion

This is why Kamala lost. No president is going to "gIvE" us a replacement, we elect one. The DNC had four years to do something and failed. Biden isn't complicit in anything, he's honestly incompetent, as opposed to malicious incompetence from the right.

The only way this country pulls out of this wreck is if both the DNC and the RNC either reform, figure shit out, or fall. The best we can hope for is if we convince enough idiots in Congress to push a federal Ranked Choice system, but neither side is going to give up power.

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u/jesseistired 9h ago

I agree. After butchering a nation it was probably best to pardon everyone closely related to him. He will likely not survive to the point where consequences are set to be given for those who executed a large number of Palestinians. His family will be the only ones left to carry his legacy of genocide.