President Biden’s move to pardon his son Hunter has been met with criticism — from opponents and some allies. We look at what that means for his legacy.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Biden came into office promising to respect the independence of the justice system.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
But this week, he did something that his critics – and even a few of his allies – say undermines his arguments that no one is above the law. He pardoned his son Hunter, after saying many times he would not.
FADEL: To help us make sense of the politics of this moment and what it means for Biden’s legacy, we’re joined now by NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so the president signed this full, unconditional pardon for his son. Tell us more about how this is being received.
KHALID: The reaction has been strong. Mona Charen is a former Republican who, a couple of weeks ago, worried about this possibility, wrote a piece for the anti-Trump publication called The Bulwark, saying, President Biden, don’t pardon Hunter.
MONA CHAREN: Look, you understand his feelings as a father. But he should have put those aside, because this so discredits everything he had been saying about why he was different from Trump.
KHALID: Biden ran on preserving democracy and the rule of law, and he was a former chair in the Senate of the Judiciary Committee. Trump has long insisted the Justice Department is being weaponized against him and his supporters, and now Biden is saying his son was unfairly targeted by the justice system. As you can imagine, Republicans were quick to criticize the president. House Speaker Mike Johnson explicitly blamed Biden for damaging trust in the justice system.
FADEL: OK, so you mentioned that some Democrats are trying to argue that the other side is worse. What are other Democrats saying?
KHALID: To be clear, Biden has many defenders in his party who say that he made the right move and reject that what Biden is doing is somehow equivalent to what Trump has done. But I spoke to Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. He told me there’s already this feeling in America that powerful people live by a different set of rules than normal folks. And this feeds into that.
MICHAEL BENNET: I am worried that one of the things that will come from this is that the next president, who himself is not committed to the rule of law at all, will use President Biden’s pardon of his son as a precedent to erode the rule of law.
KHALID: And he’s not alone. The governor of Colorado said it’ll tarnish Biden’s reputation. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan said it erodes faith in government and described it as an improper use of power. One reason why this is also top of mind to Democrats is that Trump has said he’ll pardon January 6 rioters on Day 1. And Trump’s first response to the news of Hunter Biden’s pardon was to again refer back to those January 6 rioters. He sees those as political prosecutions. This pardon could make it harder for Democrats to criticize Trump if he moves forward with that pledge.
FADEL: How is the White House defending this decision?
KHALID: We haven’t heard from the president directly since he issued a press release about the pardon Sunday night. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did tell reporters that they feel Hunter Biden was singled out because his last name was Biden. Over the last few months, she has told reporters that a pardon was not in the works, and so she’s facing a lot of questions now about the administration’s credibility over the issue.
FADEL: NPR’s Asma Khalid. Thank you, Asma.
KHALID: Good to speak with you.
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