Biden Pardoning His Son Is Questionable. The Media Narrative Around It Is Worse.
Criticism of Hunter's pardoning that doesn't take Trump's corruption into account perpetuates a dangerous false equivalency.
Last week, President Biden issued a full pardon of his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter was convicted of federal gun charges in June and pleaded guilty to federal tax offenses in September; he was set to be sentenced on both charges in a few weeks. In defending the pardon, Biden cited his belief that politics had interfered with the judicial process.
This seemingly unprecedented move elicited reactions from both sides of the aisle. Predictably, Trump crowed about the pardon being a miscarriage of justice and even asked for his own hush money trial to be tossed out because of the pardon. A handful of centrist Democrats, meanwhile, took turns clutching their proverbial pearls.
Worse yet was the flurry of bad takes from the journalist and pundit class. The AP called the pardon “a threat to democratic norms” and contradictory to the notion that everyone is above the law. NYT columnist Bret Stephens denounced Biden’s pardon and said it was “rank mendacity, political hypocrisy, naked self-dealing”. The Washington Post was worried whether Biden’s pardon would embolden Trump to undermine the rule of law.
It’s as if these people are writing from a different universe, one in which Trump hasn’t existed as an existential threat to democracy for eight years. Despite years of Trump’s threats to norms, outright hypocrisy, and naked self-dealing, neither Stephens nor many other MSM journalists ever mustered the courage to call him out with the same forcefulness as they mustered for Biden.
And the notion that this will embolden Trump? Trump has already stated clearly that he will undermine the rule of law to pursue political enemies. After two impeachments, multiple criminal trials, and an election win, it is the height of naivety to think that it will be Biden’ pardon, of all things, that will push Trump to break the rules. He is going to do it, regardless of what anyone does in the next two months.
First off, let’s set the record straight on Biden’s pardon. To start with, Biden’s pardon is neither unprecedented nor novel. This was not the first time a president has pardoned a family member, nor were Hunter Biden’s crimes the most serious wrongdoing by a presidential relative to elicit a pardon. The first pardon of a relative was Bill Clinton, who granted clemency for the drug conviction of his brother. The second was Donald Trump himself, who pardoned his son-in-law’s father Charles Kushner of multiple crimes including filing false tax returns, lying to the Federal Election Commission, and retaliating against a witness, all of which are more serious than Hunter Biden’s crimes.
Second, there does appear to be irregularities with Hunter Biden’s case. According to Ryan Reilly of NBC, legal experts have rarely seen the charges Hunter Biden faced taken up by prosecutors. Rather than a sweet deal, Hunter Biden seemed to be getting the short end of the stick. The constant pressure from MAGA Republicans in Congress may therefore have succeeded in influencing the carriage of justice.
Whether that makes Biden’s pardon justifiable is up for debate. Most of us don’t like to see rich white men get away with crimes due to their privilege. President Biden did also go back on his word not to interfere with his son’s case. On the other hand, we should also not favor anyone to be punished unjustly and more harshly than necessary. Given Trump’s comments and the aforementioned Republican witch hunt, there is a high probability that Hunter Biden would have suffered unjust punishment while in custody. Many do not take this into account in their judgments of Biden’s pardon.
More important, however, is the false equivalency set up by the MSM’s alarmism. The notion that this pardon is somehow a grave erosion of democratic norms is asinine compared to the litany of wrongdoing Trump has been setting up since the election. Trump has appointed a litany of extremists and far-right zealots to run major aspects of the government. Two of them- Matt Gaetz and Pete Heseth- are credibly accused of rape. His FBI pick, Kash Patel, has threatened to use the agency to jail journalists. Project 2025 architect Brendan Carr, the nominee to head the Federal Communications Commission, is likely to undermine regulations to propel right-wing propaganda. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, may well be a Russian asset. And Charles Kushner, the guy Trump pardoned? He will likely serve as the country’s next ambassador to France.
All of this somehow did not elicit the same amount of outrage and pearl-clutching from the MSM. The aforementioned individuals have made literal threats to democracy. To suggest that the pardoning of Hunter Biden is what is going to erode American democracy given this context is irresponsible journalism.
Why does all this matter?
The mainstream media has a legitimate role to play in both Donald Trump’s initial rise, as well as his return to power. During his first term, the MSM routinely delved into bad faith false equivalencies and distracting headlines while covering the Trump administration’s wrongdoing. During his reelection, they sought to sane-wash Trump’s criminality and fascistic predilections. This is to say nothing of the news outlets that yielded to cowardice and corporate interests in declining to endorse Kamala Harris.
Now, Trump has little to lose and a lot to gain by undermining democratic institutions on his way to autocratic rule. We need journalists to do their jobs, which is to provide accurate and nuanced coverage rather than seeking a nonexistent “balance” to assuage right-wing fascists. As journalism professor Jonathan Foster once said:
“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the f**king window and find out which is true.”
Only time will tell whether the MSM is up to this task.