President Joe Biden (D) recently announced that he would be pardoning his son Hunter Biden. The pardon comes after the White House repeatedly affirmed that President Biden would not be pardoning his son. Immediately, social media erupted in a firestorm of comments from people supporting the pardon to those rejecting it. Kari Lake (R) denounced the party while calling it the "fitting end" to a lackluster presidency.
Late Sunday evening, President Biden addressed the country in a statement, announcing that he would be issuing a "full and unconditional" pardon on his son because "it is clear that Hunter was treated differently."
"The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election," the president wrote just days before his son was due for sentencing on gun and tax evasion charges.
The pardon has received scrutiny from both Republicans and Democrats who've pointed out that the president had previously affirmed he would not pardon his son. Instead, the incumbent president had said that he would respect due process. However, President Biden invoked the pathos of being a father in his announcement, noting, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
Commenting on the pardon, Lake called it a "fitting conclusion" to President Biden's "sad political career." She went on to call the pardon "a desperate act of self-preservation to shield himself & his family from the consequences of a lifetime of political & personal corruption."
This pardon is a fitting conclusion to @JoeBiden's sad political career, a desperate act of self-preservation to shield himself & his family from the consequences of a lifetime of political & personal corruption.
President Trump won because the American people are tired of… pic.twitter.com/u2NbVhDMR5
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 2, 2024
Lake also suggested that the pardon is representative of why President Donald Trump (R) won the 2024 presidential election, writing that "President Trump won because the American people are tired of public servants like Biden only serving themselves."
Democrats like Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) have similarly shared his disappointment in the announcement.
Governor Polis expressed that, as a father himself, he understood why President Biden would seek to pardon his son, but "he put his family ahead of the country" by doing so.
