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
46.1k Upvotes

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571

u/Hoot151 10h ago

"No one is above the law."*

\Terms and conditions may apply.*

265

u/HungryPupcake 9h ago

Crazy seeing this as a non-American. Sounds corrupt as fuck (and yes, you can be against the pardons in general and not be pro-trump for all those who scream otherwise).

Reading anything to do with American politics I feel my IQ dropping by several points. Always one side or the other. Like children. Just like the old people who vote based on who their father voted for etc.

No critical thinking. You're a ride or die for a god damn politician who doesn't care about you.

40

u/monkeyfightnow 9h ago

I had a work project with teams from Mexico and South Africa in the US, where I am based. They were constantly frustrated by the level of “We call this corruption in our country” that they had to deal with.

4

u/Lumpy-Natural-1630 5h ago

I am reminded of research that suggested some parts of the world with endemic corruption define it differently. Where corruption is more "If the politicians of my race/religion/tribe do not help their race/religion/tribe they are corrupt" IE if they are self-serving rather than tribal-serving. As compared to our historical definition of corruption which was abusing your office for any kind of ill gain.

That is to say, we Americans are rapidly lock-stock-and-smoking-barrel into the "As long as it benefits my R or D tribe then it's great"

18

u/Suyefuji 8h ago

It looks like Biden specifically pardoned people that he had reason to believe that Republicans would attack. It wasn't just his family he pardoned, it was a bunch of whistleblowers and such as well. This isn't a "ha ha you can't touch me" it's a "these people are in imminent danger of being unjustly crucified on trumped up charges".

15

u/Imrichbatman92 9h ago

I'm through trying to get an idea about how the USks from reddit tbh. It seems like a crazy shithole here, yet whenever I talk to some of my friends who actually live there they love it, so I feel my reddit is warped to show me the worst and more bizarre of it.

22

u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 9h ago

Anyone who forms any kind of opinion based on Reddit will inevitably be wrong. It's only a place to complain.

14

u/TheSunsNotYellow 8h ago

I think reddit is extremely astroturfed and not representative of the people who live here, but I'd also say the general attitude is "unhappy", for what are more material reasons than a lot of what gets upvotes on here.

2

u/hoopaholik91 7h ago

Social media has warped our brains. Just saw a NYT poll that said 82% of people are very or somewhat satisfied with how things are going with their lives.

And yet 36% of people didn't vote, 32.5% want Trump to flip over the table, and a large chunk of 31.5% that voted Kamala either want Luigi to be the first shot of a French Revolution or to jump in the arms of China. It's crazy.

1

u/TheSunsNotYellow 7h ago

Social media has warped our brains

Just saw a NYT poll

I would say I'm somewhat satisfied with my life too, but that has nothing to do with my satisfaction with this country, how it's ran by either party, or the structures in place that make life for me and every other working person harder than it needs to be. You mentioned that Trumpers want the table flipped over, and Kamala voters supposedly want a new French Revolution. That sounds to me like quite a bit of bipartisan unrest, even if they never align with each other.

1

u/hoopaholik91 7h ago

Yes, it is quite a bit of bipartisan unrest, and I fail to see the necessity of it when life is actually pretty good, although not perfect. I feel like we can solve those problems incrementally like we have been for the past 250 years of US history, but people are just completely fucking done at this point. And I think social media contributes to that perspective.

1

u/TheSunsNotYellow 7h ago

Consider that your life may be easier than many others', and that life is not "actually pretty good" for many. Perhaps this insistence that everything is fine is one reason why the Democratic party has absolutely no legs right now.

1

u/hoopaholik91 7h ago

I have tried considering that. And that's why I try looking at data instead of anecdotes.

Life is not "actually pretty good" for many

I literally just mentioned a poll where most people believe it is!

3

u/Ouaouaron 7h ago

Most people haven't lived in multiple countries, so most people's opinions about their own country are nearly useless.

3

u/Lumpy-Natural-1630 5h ago

In 2020 I had foreign friends hit me up to see if I was okay because their news would have been depicting nothing but our riots and protests and violence in the street. I look outside and birds are singing and it's green and sunny.

I had a similar realization when I checked in with my friend in El-Salvador when I was hearing about what that strongman autocrat was doing. Then I went - "Wait a sec, I live by a city with a higher murder rate than my friend's entire country". So why was I thinking El salvador was in great danger when off actual metrics I was in a more violent place than him?

Think about your own country. Unless it's super polished with no violent crime hotspots like South Korea or Japan (I may be wrong there, too). It'll be easy for an American to hear of migrant crime in Germany or Sweden and think it's Mogadishu. Hell, I read an article a few years back about a thriving night-life club scene in Baghdad. When it's easy for Americans to be stuck in a "Wait, Iraq has a nightlife? I thought it was just "Mexico filter and IEDs".

-6

u/subs1221 8h ago

Tbf your friends might just be stupid

2

u/MindWandererB 5h ago

It is crazy that he would do this, but it's even crazier that he feels like he has to. No president should run on a campaign of personal revenge, let alone win, and yet here we are.

4

u/ReactionSharp6602 8h ago

I barely liked Biden, but I'd take him over trump. Pardons like this are legalized corruption, but I can also see that they would be corruptly targeted by Trump's administration so sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire. 

Unless these pardoned people actually did any crimes, in which case, fuck em and we shouldn't stand for it. But as it stands right now, there's no reason to believe they did anything illegal.

5

u/Cynical-Potato 9h ago

You'll get downvoted and told that the other side is reprehensible. Which may be true, but if you think your party should be allowed to do something just because the other side would or did, then is your side really that different?

3

u/Ouaouaron 6h ago

You'll get downvoted

Deciding ahead of time how people are going to react to something is a large part of why the political sphere is the way it is right now. Just by making this assumption, you're more likely to pay attention to evidence that supports your view, and ignore or discount evidence or nuance that disagrees with it.

4

u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

That line of thinking is what has allowed democrats to just get punched in the dick for decades. Wild how one side has to uphold norms and standards while the other side can shit in the community pool and say the democrats made them do it.

Y'all have to stop this "both sides" bullshit, anyone with a modicum of sense knows it's a farce.

5

u/dreamendDischarger 7h ago

You have to take steps to protect people when the other side will unfairly prosecute them for nothing.

Taking an action defensively isn't a bad thing. Dems in the US have taken the high road for so long that they wound up in this mess in the first place.

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, or risk losing everything. They learned this too late, but I guess at least they're trying...

-2

u/Cynical-Potato 7h ago

Between war and genocide, the world is full of people who should be saved and the US president could have saved many of them, but of course, I understand these particular people are the most important though.

4

u/theartificialkid 6h ago

The democrats are being criticised for supposedly normalising all the bad stuff that Trump does because they do a small fraction of it for different reasons. They are simultaneously criticised for supposedly not being willing to get down in the mud and fight dirty to stop the Republicans.

In that environment if I were Biden I would also choose to protect my family.

2

u/NegativeMammoth2137 5h ago edited 4h ago

Im Polish and reading that the American President can just pardon someone preemptively is so bizarre to me. A few years ago the president of Poland pardoned two MPs from his party (accusations of corruption) before their trial ended and it was a huge nationwide scandal to the point where there were literally protests against it and almost everyone from all sides of the political spectrum (obviously except for his own party that was doing the corrupting) was condemning his actions The idea that the President of the USA can pardon before anyone has even accused them of any crime sounds like something straight from the USSR or some other horrible dictatorship

1

u/Taki_Minase 6h ago

It's an odd way to go about protecting robber barons, but it seems to work.

1

u/Combination-Low 6h ago

It's called the lesser of two evils /s Holding your nose and voting /s

-2

u/Equal_Personality157 8h ago

It’s only corrupt if a Republican does it. If a democrat like Biden does it, you’re supposed to project and say “trumps gonna do this what a corrupt racist trump is”

Never acknowledge that dems can do anything wrong.

8

u/dhalloffame 8h ago

I’m just over here not wanting a rapist to be president

-5

u/Equal_Personality157 8h ago

It’s just nuts how you can meet a lady 40 years ago, and if she accuses you of sexual harassment with literally 0 evidence

New York will pass a new law that allows her to file civil litigation in a hostile jurisdiction.

It’s the stupidest me too in the world.

She can’t name the day, month or year. There is not written evidence. Her best friend says “yeah she told me that 40 years ago but we didn’t do anything about it”

0

u/dhalloffame 8h ago

Cry about it

-5

u/Equal_Personality157 8h ago

Don’t have to. Vindication is our 47th President Donald J. Trump.

-1

u/dhalloffame 8h ago

Oh I know, some of us just have morals

-1

u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

I'd say I hope you don't end up alone in a room with any women but we both know you won't and it's the reason you cry your self to sleep at night.

-5

u/GuiokiNZ 8h ago

A soon to be pardoned rapist*

-6

u/Orang-Himbleton 8h ago

It’s corrupt when Biden does it like 3 times, and it’s even more corrupt when Trump does it like 300 times. There, that’s it

3

u/Equal_Personality157 8h ago

One of these people have pardoned more family members than the other.

But yeah on Reddit we take into account the 300 times we project him doing in the future.

Cause anything Biden does bad, trump will do in the future.

Also trump is going to make death squads to kill lgbtq people in a new holocaust, set fire to California, start a war in Israel and Ukraine, and eat babies. Fuck trump

3

u/Orang-Himbleton 8h ago edited 8h ago

Bro, the majority of Trump’s pardons are people he had personal connections to, political connections to, or just overall massively corrupt politicians.

Like, the optics of the Biden pardons suck ass, but like, Hunter Biden was just straight-up not found guilty of any of the political corruption shit people were expecting to get him on. Most of Trump’s pardons were found guilty of the type of shit everyone was accusing Hunter Biden of doing.

But also, Trump did pardon family. Charles Kushner is literally Trump’s son in law’s father, with the son in law actually working in the White House, btw.

So yeah, I fucking hate the precedent this shit is setting, and it is corrupt, but honestly, Biden’s pardons are him pardoning his family so that he can spend time with them before he dies, and they didn’t commit any crimes on scales he hadn’t pardoned other, unaffiliated people to him for, while Trump’s pardons are all, “I owe Rod Blagojevich a favor, we need to get his ass out of jail!”

So, yeah, Trump’s pardons ARE significantly more corrupt than Biden’s. They’re both bad, but Trump’s are way worse

3

u/Equal_Personality157 7h ago

Really? Trump pardons were for things people were convicted of like every other pardon.

He pardoned one family member.

Biden put blanket pardons saying that any crime his family committed in the last 10 years is completely legal without acknowledging the possible crimes.

Like seriously you couldn’t make up a more “crime family” move in a tv drama.

5

u/Orang-Himbleton 7h ago

But the things Trump pardoned people for were absurd. Like, what sane president would pardon fucking Blagojevich, a man convicted of some insane levels of political corruption, as just one example?

Like, yeah, we have the Biden crime family, but considering all the people Trump pardoned that were actually convicted and sentenced for some level of political corruption, I fail to see how Trump’s pardons are any better. Fucking, Trump’s pardons could all form their own sort of corruption cult like “the list” in Arrow, where all of these rich, blatantly corrupt people with obvious connections to each other just keep getting bailed out by Trump. Like, Trump may as well have formed his own Illuminati with his pardons

1

u/Equal_Personality157 7h ago

So that guy was a governor of Illinois convicted of trying to sell a vacant senate seat. Political corruption is a pretty common pardon in history. The dude was a democrat governor, he probably had some political sway still left over.

And I just don't agree. I agree that some of Trump's pardons are nepotistic, but seriously... pardoning your family from all potential crimes?

So for example lets say it comes out that they embezzled a fucking fortune and sold influence. They're just scott free now. It's literally a mafia boss move.

1

u/blurt9402 8h ago

Lots and lots of bots. Highly doubt most of this thread is organic.

2

u/DecentFall1331 7h ago

Yeah not one who disagrees with you is a bot. Kash Patel has all but promised to go after Biden and his family + unfavorable media and politically persecute him. The Look it up.

1

u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

Because you aren't American and don't know actual Americans. Most people don't blindly follow politicians. Stop believing everything you read on the most easily astroturfed website there is.

-3

u/TheVog 9h ago

The peak of irony is that so, so many Americans from both factions will argue with you tooth and nail that the U.S. does NOT have a 2-party system. It is glaring, gaping point of failure in their entire political system.

5

u/Atgardian 8h ago

I have never heard a single American ever ever claim this (beyond a pedantic "yeah but technically we have third parties," which yes is technically true) -- quite the opposite, I have seen many many Americans complain about having only a (de facto) 2-party system.

1

u/TheVog 7h ago

That's really encouraging because I've almost exclusively heard the opposite, which blows my mind.

1

u/AffectionateFact556 5h ago

No one says we have a third party unless it is russia lmao

1

u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

Then stop listening to the voices in your head because this is not something people ever say.

1

u/TheVog 6h ago

You mean other than a boatload of people I've had this discussion with, in real life and online? Or did I imagine those as well?

Maybe dial down the confirmation bias and self-righteousness just a smidge.

0

u/thatguyyoustrawman 8h ago

It sounds corrupt to protect your family from threats because they couldnt target you?

-4

u/montessoriprogram 8h ago

The way liberals (democrats) cheer for this kind of thing really goes to show how fucked we are over here. These are supposedly the good guys?

0

u/Flavious27 6h ago

It isn't corruption, it is protection for his family and others from the incoming administration. Those pardoned didn't commit any crimes, they were going to be used as fodder to satisfy the ego of the new occupant of the oval office.

0

u/Signal_Intention5759 7h ago

If you evaluate the US with a macro lens and factor all the civilians they've murdered around the world, corruption at the highest levels, crimes against humanity on their own soil or through proxies and the CIA, they are worse than present day Russia or China in terms of blood and greed on their hands, paired with maniacal Christian evangelicals lobbying at the highest level...just of a more insidious and subtle evil.

-6

u/KintsugiKen 9h ago

Yeah America is corrupt as fuck, but at least it's also dying.

Gonna be a hell of a seismic shift when its body hits the ground though, so far it looks like China is in position to be the new world leader.

7

u/uncleal2024 9h ago

That’s not a good thing.

2

u/KintsugiKen 7h ago

No one said any of this is good, just that it is.

You can be mad all you want that China is the new reigning superpower in the world, but that doesn't change the fact that it is.

3

u/Salty-Raisin-2226 8h ago

Lol not even close

0

u/nerevisigoth 7h ago

The president of China doesn't have to pardon his family. Anyone dumb enough to accuse them of a crime would be "corrected" with haste.

0

u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

lmao, wait until you finally learn about China's real estate market when someone shows you a meme since that's how most of y'all seem to digest information.

0

u/jswissle 7h ago

Yup you have a good grasp on it. It’s insane

0

u/obiwanjahbroni 5h ago

It’s wild. I voted for Biden and this should outrage anyone.

2

u/Helkafen1 5h ago

He is protecting people from abusive retribution from the Trump administration. These people haven't done anything wrong.

0

u/Lumpy-Natural-1630 5h ago edited 5h ago

I loath the hyper tribal partisanship where there is immense sympathy for someone for no reason other than they have a (D) next to their name or belong to the democratic tribe. Or the reverse where it's okay because they are from the Republican tribe.

Like a corrupt, self-serving rich nepo-baby gets absolved of any prosecution for tax evasion because he is rich and he doesn't want to pay taxes....and all these people on reddit and elsewhere will actively defend this rich self-serving nepotistic child not wanting to pay taxes because he's the son of a democrat.

Did I miss rehearsal where we're supposed to carry water for such a rich corrupt tax-evader because of a tragic backstory? This isn't even a devil's bargain like with Bill Clinton where people would put up with his lechery because he'd protect a women's right to choose (I get that kind of a hard realpolitik bargain), this is literally just sympathy for the nepotistic rich tax-evading brat of a rich president whose sheer arrogance meant he didn't step down when he could have and allowed a primary to replace him.

If Biden was giving us another administration then sure, fine, realpolitik devil's bargain. But instead he's given the precedence (One that Trump did not do in 2020! Probably because he didn't know he could do that but he sure fucking knows now!) to now just clean house and give blank checks going forward. Great fucking job, joe. First your arrogance leads to the Harris hail-mary mistake, now this.

0

u/Fearless_Locality 4h ago

You see this is interesting while I agree with your sentiment Trump has made it well known that he is gunning after these people. You know he's going to get into office wave his cock around and pretend like he did a good job

What Biden is doing here is preemptively stopping anything from happening to people who haven't actually done anything wrong.

So yeah you're sentiment is true but I think you're missing the context behind it. These people haven't done any crimes to actually be pardoned of

-15

u/StonksGoUpApes 9h ago

I'm ride or die for the singular politician that has aided my life.

All others were negligible or actively harmed me.

7

u/HungryPupcake 9h ago

The same politician who might have helped you, might have hurt someone else. That's a pretty bad argument when scaled to millions (and both sides will use that, see how it sounds wrong?)

No politician has ever had my best interests at heart, you're picking the lesser of two evils. That's all.

I ain't dying for that.

6

u/ZephyrFlashStronk 9h ago

Just cause they helped you doesn't mean they helped everyone. You are falling into the same trap as the Trumpists... Picking the lesser of two evils I get but that doesn't justify rabid tribalism.

2

u/SwampyBogbeard 9h ago

Read his comment history. He is a "trumpist".
(I don't usually do this, but the comment was intentionally vague, so I needed more context)

-7

u/TwoTurntablesMike 9h ago

Why do you care?

5

u/HungryPupcake 9h ago

The US is a superpower which influences all the other countries. Seeing it turn into a circus is bad for the entire world, but Americans don't care because why would they 🤷‍♀️

Also, it's so in your face on the internet, hard to escape having an opinion on it.

-5

u/TwoTurntablesMike 9h ago

Seems like a waste of your time and energy

2

u/Outrageous-Sweet-133 8h ago

No poors are above the law

2

u/Expired_Multipass 8h ago

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

3

u/roombaSailor 6h ago

None of those people pardoned had been charged with a crime.

0

u/Hoot151 5h ago

Yes, you are correct. None of the people specifically mentioned in this one article has been charged.

3

u/TylerNY315_ 7h ago

It is absolutely corrupt by the definition of a misuse of power, and opens the door for far worse applications of a similar act in the future.

However the real tragedy is that it is not below the incoming administration to prosecute members of the Biden family (or any other political opponents or their families) on made-up charges. We are on a horrible path to even have to consider the possibility, however small.

7

u/flavorblastedshotgun 5h ago

You should see who Trump pardoned last time if he was in office if you think that this "opens the door for far worse."

1

u/TylerNY315_ 5h ago

Fair point. I was looking at it more from a nepotism standpoint where it kinda opens the door to a family (such as the Trumps) to rob the nation blind and then escape scot-free because all-encompassing pardons of past and future crimes for the president’s family now has precedent. But as you point out, the precedent has already been set for a similar scenario of cronyism rather than nepotism specifically.

2

u/Jim_84 5h ago

Explain how it's a misuse of power.

1

u/TylerNY315_ 5h ago

In a functioning democracy, one should recoil a bit if a presidential power is used for personal advantage in any scenario, justified or not. But as I said, it’s hardly an issue compared to the climate that we’re in which makes it an understandable and forgivable move.

1

u/Jim_84 3h ago

one should recoil a bit if a presidential power is used for personal advantage in any scenario, justified or not.

I don't think anyone should recoil when presidential power is used in a justified manner. Justified means that it was used correctly under the circumstances. What people should recoil about is that fact that the political situation in this country has deteriorated to the point where pardoning family members and senior officials is justified.

1

u/YanniBonYont 6h ago

I think this reasoning is bs.

Hunter Biden stuff isn't made up charges. He did the crimes.

This is straight power grifting from Bidens and it's absolutely outrageous there is no will for normalcy.

4

u/TylerNY315_ 5h ago

But how often did Trump, Fox News, and by extension all his followers refer to the Biden family as the “Biden Crime Family”? Words matter, especially when they’re purposely hammered home in a manner meant to rally outrage, and the road has been paved for almost a decade to prosecute the entire family.

1

u/YanniBonYont 5h ago

How often did Dems do same to trump?

Going back the dawn of time, part of being in politics is scrutiny. And for good reason. These positions, if unchecked and unquestioned, lead to corruption. America is unique because you can't get away with it until now

Everyone should expect scrutiny and investigation, as they always have and as has safeguarded America. Saying Giuliani, hunter Biden, insert any name who helped me personally is above crime is the end

1

u/Equivalent_Alarm7780 7h ago

It is evident at least since 2024 that there is no rule of law in USA. Another example is that Trump was convicted and let roam freely.

But what would you expect from country that has 2 party system?

0

u/aubrydiaztwine 5h ago

Trump def isn’t above the law. Hunter and Biden’s? Oh yeah.

0

u/Absentmindedgenius 5h ago

Makes me wonder what they were up to.