Tangle - The Hunter Biden pardon.

I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.”

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Today's read: 16 minutes.

Help me support a fantastic cause.

Today is Giving Tuesday, a day when Americans are encouraged to give what they can to good causes. I’m using my megaphone to ask you to support a Philadelphia group that I am a regular donor to: Double Trellis Food Initiative. Their mission is to provide free, dignified, zero-waste meals for Philadelphians in need. In the process, they also provide culinary training to adults who have spent time in prison and are trying to get back on their feet. They’ve cooked and distributed over 50,000 meals in the Philly area this year alone. 

Furthermore, the program also trains those in recovery to re-join the workforce (the training is a paid program with 100% graduation rate where students receive a ServSafe certificate).

This organization is run by a family friend of mine who overcame addiction to find purpose, sobriety, and stability in this work. His story is inspiring to me, and because I know him well, I know the money is being put to good use (Double Trellis has just two full-time staffers, so your dollars go directly to feeding and training people — not to admin fees). If you’re able, please donate here.

What we missed.

It was a newsy Thanksgiving break, so we’re starting off our week with 10 major stories that we didn’t have the chance to cover last week. 

1. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which took effect on Wednesday morning. (The agreement) Separately, Egyptian security officials met with Hamas leaders to discuss a ceasefire deal in the Gaza war. (The talks)
2. The Biden administration proposed a new rule that would make weight-loss drugs like Ozempic eligible for coverage under Medicare and Medicaid. (The proposal)
3. President-elect Donald Trump nominated physician and health economist Jay Bhattacharya to serve as the next director of the National Institutes of Health. (The nomination) Separately, Trump selected retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. (The nomination) Additionally, Trump chose real estate executive Charles Kushner (the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner) to serve as ambassador to France and Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos (the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany) to serve as the senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. (The selection; the selection) Finally, Trump nominated former federal prosecutor Kash Patel to serve as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (The nomination)
4. Syrian rebels advanced into Aleppo, the largest city in northern Syria, and seized control of most of the city in a surprise attack. (The offensive)
5. The Australian Parliament approved a ban on social media for children under the age of 16. (The ban) Separately, British lawmakers voted to allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in England and Wales under certain conditions. (The vote)
6. Democratic lawmakers from Rhode Island, members of the Connecticut congressional delegation, and several of President-elect Trump’s appointees were targeted with bomb threats and “swatting” attacks. (The threats)
7. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she spoke to President-elect Trump and discussed maintaining a good relationship after previously suggesting she may impose tariffs against the United States if Trump follows through on his threat to impose 25% import duties on Mexican goods. (The call) Additionally, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago days after Trump threatened similar tariffs against Canada. (The meeting) Separately, Trump said he would levy a 100% tariff on BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries if they did not commit to maintaining the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency. (The comments)
8. The incoming Trump administration reportedly plans to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court judges who issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (The report)
9. The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in a case challenging Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormonal treatments for minors. (The case)
10. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visited Hawaii as part of a seven-day Pacific tour despite the protests of the Chinese government. (The visit) Separately, the United States released three Chinese citizens in exchange for three Americans being detained in China. (The swap)

Today's quick hits.

1. BREAKING: South Korea’s parliament voted to end martial law hours after it was declared by President Yoon Suk Yeol, who accused opposition parties of making the country vulnerable to threats from North Korea. (The vote)
2. The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee released its final report on Covid-19, determining that the pandemic likely originated from a leak from a lab in Wuhan, China. The report also said the U.S. government perpetrated misinformation by calling the lab leak theory a “conspiracy.” (The report)
3. Israel and Hezbollah each accused the other of violating the terms of their ceasefire agreement after a series of attacks over the weekend. (The latest) Separately, the Pentagon said it will send Ukraine $725 million in military assistance through presidential drawdown authority. (The aid)
4. French lawmakers will vote on a no-confidence motion for Prime Minister Michel Barnier, which would disband the current government if passed. (The vote)
5. Closing arguments are underway in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial for the death of Jordan Neely in a 2023 incident on the New York City subway. (The trial)

Today's topic.

Hunter Biden’s pardon. On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he had issued a full and unconditional pardon of his son, Hunter, for any criminal acts between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024. The younger Biden was convicted earlier this year on felony gun charges and pleaded guilty to felony tax offenses; he was set to appear at sentencing hearings for those cases on December 12 and December 16. The president’s decision comes after repeatedly promising that he would not grant his son clemency or otherwise involve himself in his criminal cases. 

Refresher: The Justice Department prosecuted Hunter Biden in two separate cases — one for lying on a gun-purchase form in 2018 (claiming that he was not using or addicted to drugs) and the other for a scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes. In 2023, Hunter’s lawyers reached a deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and avoid prosecution on the gun charge, but the deal collapsed after a federal judge questioned its legality. 

You can read our past coverage of Hunter Biden’s criminal cases here. 

In a statement on the pardon, President Biden said that Hunter had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” alleging that “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 added that he hoped “Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.” Biden reportedly decided to pardon his son after spending the weekend with his family, including Hunter, in Nantucket. 

However, Biden and the White House had explicitly ruled out pardoning Hunter since the start of the Justice Department’s prosecutions, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying as recently as November 7 that the president did not plan to pardon his son in the final months of his term. 

The pardon's scope is unusually broad, as presidents typically grant clemency for specific crimes rather than immunity for all criminal — or potentially criminal — acts taken during a period of time. Notably, the pardon’s start date of January 1, 2014 coincides with the year Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, a position that Republicans have alleged Hunter illegally profited from. Legal experts have suggested that President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon in 1974 is the only comparably broad presidential pardon in modern U.S. history. 

Republicans quickly criticized President Biden’s decision, while President-elect Trump suggested that those convicted on charges related to the January 6 riot at the Capitol should also receive pardons. Democrats, meanwhile, have been more muted in their reactions, though some have also criticized the move. 

Today, we’ll share views from the right and left about Biden’s decision to pardon his son. Then, my take. 

What the right is saying.

• The right criticizes the pardon, suggesting it will be a permanent stain on Biden’s legacy. 
• Some say it was clear Biden would pardon his son as soon as it was politically expedient. 
• Others say Hunter received favorable treatment at every stage of his criminal cases.

In Fox News, Jonathan Turley wrote “Joe Biden's pardon of son Hunter cements his legacy as liar in chief.”

“President Biden's decision to use his presidential powers on Sunday to pardon his own son will be a decision that lives in infamy in presidential politics. It is not just that the president used his constitutional powers to benefit his family,” Turley said. “It is because the action culminates years of lying to the public about his knowledge and intentions in the influence-peddling scandal surrounding his family. Even among past controversies about the use of this pardon power, Biden has cemented his legacy for many, not as the commander in chief, but as the liar in chief.”

“The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can even, in my view, pardon himself. However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right. This is one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons,” Turley wrote. “President Biden has lied to cover up a corruption scandal that reportedly brought his family millions in raw influence peddling. His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power conveyed by Hunter in his dealings.”

In The New York Post, Miranda Devine said “we always knew Joe Biden would pardon troubled son Hunter.”

“It is fitting that one of the final acts of this mendacious president before leaving office was to break yet another promise to the American people,” Devine wrote. “Joe told reporters in June after Hunter was convicted of felony gun charges in Delaware that he definitely would not pardon his son… With a truthful president, that would be the end of it, but with the fabulist, plagiarist Pinocchio currently in that job, it meant little. The same for the repeated assurances of the perennial know-nothing Karine Jean-Pierre from the White House podium that no pardon would be forthcoming.”

“Hunter got an unfair advantage because of his father’s power. He broke laws with impunity and knew that nobody would ever stop him from doing exactly what he wanted. Every time he slipped up, his father and his minions in the FBI, DOJ, IRS, State Department and CIA intervened to get him off the hook,” Devine said. “The person who corrupted the legal system in this country is Joe Biden. He weaponized it against his political nemesis Donald Trump, and Trump’s supporters. Trump is the victim of unjust prosecution, not Hunter. But the American people understand that, as they proved on Election Day when they elected Trump in a landslide.”

In The Federalist, Jordan Boyd argued “Hunter is ‘treated differently’ by the deep state, but not how Joe Biden’s pardon suggests.” 

“Joe’s assertion that Hunter received unique treatment from the powers that be is correct, but not for the reasons the president listed. Ever since Joe became vice president and then president, the bureaucracy has gone out of its way to handle Hunter and his criminality with kid gloves,” Boyd wrote. “Hunter allegedly failed to pay over $1.4 million in taxes and lied about illicit drug use on the federal form required for gun purchases, facts that were widely reported and well known to federal investigators. Despite public knowledge of Hunter’s guns and tax crimes, however, U.S. Attorney David Weiss repeatedly delayed bringing charges against him.”

“The FBI, similarly, did its best to hide and downplay a document detailing accusations that Biden fired a Ukrainian prosecutor tasked with investigating the energy company his son was a board member of in exchange for millions of dollars,” Boyd said. “In Hunter’s pardon, Biden lamented the various investigations and prosecutions of his son as ‘a miscarriage of justice.’ The true miscarriage of justice, however, came years ago when deep state departments and agencies started working overtime to shield Hunter to protect Joe’s power.”

What the left is saying.

• The left is also critical of the pardon, with many arguing the decision is plainly hypocritical. 
• Some defend the pardon but say the president handled it poorly. 
• Others worry that the move will embolden Trump in his second term. 

In The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait wrote about “Biden’s unpardonable hypocrisy.”

“Biden professed a willingness to abide by the results of the justice system as a matter of principle. But in breaking his promise, and issuing a sweeping pardon of his son for any crimes he may have committed over an 11-year period, Biden has revealed his pledge to have been merely instrumental,” Chait said. “President Biden’s complaint about the higher standard applied to his son reflects the perspective of myopic privilege. Crimes by family members of powerful public officials are far more damaging to public confidence than similar crimes by anonymous people. Holding them to account through strict enforcement of the law is good and correct.

“What the president fails to note in his self-pitying statement is that Hunter Biden for years engaged in legal but wildly inappropriate behavior by running a business based on selling the perception of access to his father,” Chait wrote. “But Joe Biden’s defense of Hunter’s influence peddling by stressing its narrow legality merely serves to highlight the hypocrisy of his fatherly indulgence. The black letter of the law was a fence to protect Hunter from the consequences of his sleazy behavior. And when the law itself trapped him, he simply opened a door and walked through it—a door no average American could access.”

In Newsweek, Aron Solomon argued “pardoning Hunter Biden was the right thing done the wrong way.”

The pardon “was an act of compassion and a practical solution to a legal case that had become hopelessly entangled in partisan politics. But while the pardon itself may have been justified, the president's repeated and unequivocal denials that he would ever consider such a move were deeply damaging,” Solomon said. “It was obvious to anyone following the situation closely that he would eventually issue the pardon. By refusing to admit the possibility beforehand, Biden contributed to the pervasive erosion of trust in politics and politicians.”

“Hunter Biden's legal troubles, while serious, were not particularly extraordinary in the grand scheme of federal prosecutions. He faced charges of failing to pay taxes on time and illegally owning a firearm while struggling with addiction. While these offenses are not trivial, they hardly make him the criminal mastermind Republicans have portrayed him to be,” Solomon wrote. “And yet, Biden's handling of the matter was far from perfect… Biden's repeated denials did not shield him from criticism; they only made his eventual decision appear calculated and cynical. Had he been upfront—acknowledging the extraordinary circumstances of his son's case and the difficult choices it posed—he might have turned the pardon into a moment of candor and humanity.”

In The Boston Globe, James Pindell said “Biden’s pardon of his son is not only him at his ‘Trumpiest’ but also emboldens Trump’s next term.”

“While Biden campaigned on removing Trumpism, restoring ‘dignity and decency’ to the White House, and pledging to ‘restore the soul of the nation,’ he appeared to abandon those ideals over Thanksgiving dinner,” Pindell wrote. “Within hours, ‘Good for Joe’ was trending from his supporters on X, (the site formerly known as Twitter). Nevermind, this marked a stark reversal from Biden’s repeated position that, unlike Trump, he would respect the courts and the rule of law, vowing never to pardon Hunter, despite his love for him.”

“Biden is not the first sitting president to pardon a family member. Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger Clinton, for drug charges… And let’s not forget Trump’s pardon of Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father, whom he nominated to be the next Ambassador to France,” Pindell said. “Though Biden initially sought to demonstrate his administration’s commitment to higher standards, his latest move only further emboldens a next Trump administration, which will no doubt repeatedly point to this pardon, further weakening the norms of American politics.”

My take.

Reminder: "My take" is a section where I give myself space to share my own personal opinion. If you have feedback, criticism or compliments, don't unsubscribe. Write in by replying to this email, or leave a comment.

• After insisting he would not do this, President Biden pardoning Hunter genuinely surprises me.
• I understand that Biden would want to protect his own son from prosecution under the Trump administration.
• More than anything, though, I find this decision to be hypocritical, damaging, and dangerous.

Before I say anything, I need to own the fact that I did not expect Biden to do this.

In a June edition of Tangle, I wrote that if Hunter Biden got convicted, "I have a hard time imagining him going to jail as part of his sentence, and I also think it is incredibly unlikely (and would be very unwise) for President Biden to get involved in any way (like by trying to pardon him)." After Biden dropped out, I wondered aloud if he might pardon Hunter, but I personally did not expect him to.

I have long maintained that political prognostication is a fool's errand, because when you inevitably get something wrong it turns into a blunt object people use to bludgeon you. Nevertheless, I also think making predictions is a good way to show and test your understanding of the world we live in; and I'm proud to say that when I've written about future events, I'm right far more often than I'm wrong. But I was very wrong about this. So, you can take my analysis from here with that grain of salt.

Generally speaking, I believed Biden would not pardon Hunter if he was convicted for three reasons: 1) The DOJ could have likely sought a punishment without prison, so a pardon might not have been necessary. 2) Biden would not want to do something that would help Trump politically and give him more of an excuse for any questionable actions going forward, which pardoning his son very obviously does. 3) He said he would not pardon him publicly, over and over, to the point that going back on his word would critically tarnish his legacy (and, of course, when president Biden was also candidate Biden, the optics of this decision were even less conceivable.)

Apparently, none of that really mattered.

While I think pardoning Hunter is a terrible decision, here’s what I think is the strongest argument possible for it: This case did seem to be driven by politics. The Justice Department spent significantly more resources prosecuting this case than they would have for an average defendant. Lying on a form to buy a gun is a common, low-level crime — but Hunter took a reasonable plea deal (which collapsed) for that crime. Tax evasion is worse, but Hunter pleaded guilty to that crime and paid back what he owed, plus penalties. These offenses are not deserving of this kind of attention by the DOJ, unless the department was using the case to prove something, like that the president’s son should be punished for profiting off of his father's time in the White House — but Hunter was not on trial for that.

Throughout it all, President Biden stayed out of the process, seemingly trying to respect norms and avoid influencing the case. His political reward: getting forced out of his nomination and then watching the norm-breaking Trump win re-election. Trump, of course, is the same guy who pardoned Charles Kushner, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, and who has suggested he would pardon some of the January 6 rioters once he's back in office. 

Imagine being in President Biden’s position, watching Trump pardon his allies at the end of his term, promise revenge in his next term, and appoint people like Kash Patel to the FBI; if you had the opportunity to protect your son from spending the rest of his life living in fear of political prosecution, what would you do? This, interestingly, seems to be the argument that resonates most with critics on the right: It's his son. What would you do? 

If I were making the case for pardoning him, that's how I'd make it. 

But I'm not making that case, because I think this pardon is an overt abuse of presidential power, introduces a dangerous new precedent, and raises a lot of alarming questions.

However you want to cut it, a lame-duck president just issued a sweeping pardon for his son to protect him from being prosecuted for any and all federal crimes over a decade-long period. Pardon power is not new, but this is as extreme a use of it as we’ve ever seen. It is a straightforward abuse of the presidential pardon power; there is no way around it. I understand Biden wants to preempt a more aggressive prosecution from the incoming Trump administration, but Biden’s Justice Department could have prevented the need to pardon Hunter for gun crimes if it hadn’t pursued a plea deal so headscratching it was thrown out.  

But then again, Biden didn't just pardon Hunter for his tax and gun crimes. He pardoned him for any and all federal crimes for a decade-long period, an astonishing and sweeping protection. That raises some serious questions: Why didn’t President Biden issue a more specific pardon? Is there more he could be trying to protect him from, given all the smoke around Hunter's business dealings from that time period?

Even the defense that plucks at my heartstrings — that Biden is acting as a loving father protecting his addict son who went through a dark period in his life and has now found sobriety and stability — is not sufficient. When you are president, the country's best interests should supersede your own and your family's. That's the deal you are making. It's the duty of the office, the higher calling. Even in a world where Trump gives his childrens’ in-laws pardons and high-level positions, this pardon goes a step further, setting the precedent that the president can give his family members blanket immunity if he just claims political persecution. I have no doubt that future presidents (including Trump) will use Biden’s decision as an excuse to redefine what is acceptable and defensible.

And all of this is to say nothing of the fact that President Biden repeatedly promised the American public he would not do the very thing he just did. Countless anchors from across the corporate media insisted any suggestion he was going to pardon Hunter was false, and mocked those who said he would as incapable of imagining a principled, honorable person. 

If Biden were going to do this all along, he could have hedged his bets. He could have called out the prosecution for tanking a fair plea deal when it happened. He could have issued a statement saying he was doing this to protect Hunter from Trump. He could have said he would not issue a pardon so long as the case was handled fairly. He could have even issued a narrow pardon for the tax and gun crimes.

He didn't do any of that.

Instead, he blatantly violated his own word, issued a sweeping pardon that raises alarming questions about other potential crimes, and opened a new door of abusive presidential power that we all now have to live with while he walks off into the sunset. It’s a disappointing — and frankly embarrassing — way to end his presidency. 

Take the survey: What do you think of President Biden pardoning his son Hunter? Let us know!

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Under the radar.

On Sunday, filmmaker and conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza issued an apology to a Georgia man accused of committing election fraud in D’Souza’s documentary 2,000 Mules. The film, which purported to show evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, used cellular geolocation data and ballot drop-box surveillance footage to track individuals who supposedly made at least 10 visits to drop boxes in the lead-up to the election. Now, however, D’Souza says that the surveillance footage “may not have actually been correlated” with the geolocation data, and “the surveillance videos used in the film were characterized on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team.” While he maintains that “the underlying premise of the film holds true,” D’Souza added that he would have “produced and edited the film differently” if he had been aware of the discrepancy between the surveillance footage and geolocation data. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the story. 

Numbers.

• 1795. The year that President George Washington exercised presidential pardon power for the first time, issuing amnesty to those engaged in Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Rebellion. 
• 25 and 132. The number of pardons and commutations, respectively, issued by President Joe Biden as of October 17, according to the Justice Department. 
• 144 and 94. The number of pardons and commutations, respectively, issued by President Donald Trump during his first term.
• 212 and 1,715. The number of pardons and commutations, respectively, issued by President Barack Obama during his two terms.
• 189 and 11. The number of pardons and commutations, respectively, issued by President George W. Bush during his two terms. 
• 67%. The percentage of U.S. adults who approved of Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges, according to a June 2024 Economist/YouGov poll. 
• 62%. The percentage of Joe Biden’s supporters who approved of Hunter Biden’s conviction. 
• 86%. The percentage of Donald Trump’s supporters who approved of Hunter Biden’s conviction. 

The extras.

• One year ago today we had just published a Friday edition on voter ID laws.
• The most clicked link in Tuesday’s newsletter was Trump ordering an investigation into one of his aides for soliciting money to “promote” potential appointees.
• Nothing to do with politics: The Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year is “brain rot.”
• Tuesday’s survey: 1,585 readers responded to our survey on working-class representation with 45% saying Democrats better represent the working class now and in the future. “Both parties have neglected the working class over and over again. Neither really represent the working class, but Democrats have historically supported legislation that benefits workers more than Republicans,” one respondent said.

Have a nice day.

Recently, over 30 pilot whales stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand, a hotspot for beached whales. Without intervention, these whales likely would have died from dehydration or collapsing under their own weight. However, a team of conservation workers and residents came together to use sheets to transport the whales back to the water. “It's amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” New Zealand Department of Conservation spokesperson Joe Lauterbach said. CBS News has the story.

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