President Joe Biden says he will not pardon his son Hunter Biden if he's convicted on gun-related charges - eviltoast
  • cybervseas@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’m sad it’s news when a president/presidential candidate announces something totally reasonable.

    • mecfs@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’m always disappointed hearing news about Biden. So boring and normal. Where did my emotional rollercoaster of reading the news when Trump was president go?

      Dark brandon better beat that facist dumbass come november though.

    • finley@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      He probably would’ve announced this anyway, even if politics were much more normal than they are now. The thing is, it wouldn’t have been so newsworthy. It would’ve just been a normal, reassuring statement that we all expected to hear.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        He probably would’ve announced this anyway, even if politics were much more normal than they are now

        If politics were “more normal than they are now” it wouldn’t have been a statement he would need to make.

        It’s a pretty low bar that a politician shouldn’t be assumed to be abusing their power.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I think this action likely lowers Hunter Biden’s chances of winning the presidency to zero for 2024. Not that Hunter Biden is even running for President, but from everything the GOP say, they certainly think he is.

    • CraigeryTheKid@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      honestly the ‘pardon’ ability needs to go away completely. maybe it made sense before, and/or wasnt abused, but now it just seems prepped to be a tool to release your fellow felons in crime.

      • TipRing@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Clemency is a useful tool, it just needs reform. Some states require it to go through a committee rather than just handing the power to a single official. There are probably other ways to curtail abuse as well.

      • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        That’s only if criminals are elected. Biden used the pardon in 2022 and 2023 to pardon many minor weed related offenses.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          It’s still insane that politicians are involved AT ALL in the justice system.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            The pardon is a last-ditch effort at justice. I’m fine with it.

            POTUS can only waive off on federal crimes, the states still have hold on their own convictions. And even then, the governor can pardon.

            Even if abused now and again, it’s still good for the broader system.

      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They can be useful for things like spy exchanges, but I do agree the system as it exists is ripe for abuse

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It’s cool if it is a bullshit crime. Like smoking a joint, pardon everyone convicted of that.

      • exanime@lemmy.today
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        5 months ago

        The way American politics are going, you need a full reset. There is no power that is not being abused but powers are needed for a government to work

        • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          What’s the most recent example of “full reset” for a comparable nation with the economic output, military power, or population size similar to America? The USSR? Any examples that are more successful?

          I’m not arguing that change isn’t needed, it is, but what’s realistic. Especially when going up against those with the greatest vested interest in status quo, those brainwashed to rail against what’s in their best interest or the greater good, or those too apathetic to engage with any of it.

          • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            Democracy was widely regarded as a failed experiment in antiquity up until the French revolution. There are multiple realistic avenues towards a “full reset”, like everyone joining a union and then building new power structures around the existing ones.

          • skulblaka@startrek.website
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            5 months ago

            “Realistic goals” at this point have simply become to move away from America until it goes the way of the Roman Empire, then come back to rebuild the ashes.

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        The point of being able to issue pardons is that Biden should have been pardoning everyone who’s in prison for smoking weed. Too bad Biden’s a little bitch who won’t use the office of president to do much good.

        Vote for him tho

  • Blackout@kbin.run
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    5 months ago

    Donald Trump announced shortly after that he too would never pardon his son Eric. He was quoted as saying “I never liked that kid.”

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    I feel like if the shoe was on the other foot (Don Jr in trouble) Trump is bitch and moan that it was politically motivated and a witch hunt and then pardon him.

    • Delusional@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Just like that moron did with other criminals that should not have been pardoned. BTW now that that piece of shit is a convicted felon, we should start to undo anything he ever touched while in office. All those pardons he did, send them the fuck back to prison. Just like how crooked cops have their previous cases under scrutiny.

      • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        Yeah! Time for Afghanistan 2! /j But for real, we can’t just broad brush this thing. While most of it was shit, probably several things were decent things that got through in spite of the administration’s ineptitude.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        You realize the office of the US President is involved in important things in the world, and isn’t just a vehicle for revenge against a former President?

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          isn’t just a vehicle for revenge against a former President?

          Trump is the one who needs to learn that lesson

        • skulblaka@startrek.website
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          5 months ago

          You realize the office of the US President is involved in important things in the world

          Such as maintaining the safety and full functioning of the United States of America? Yes, you’re completely correct. That’s exactly why this needs to happen.

    • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      Feels like he’d only act if was Ivanka or something that would also cause trouble for him. Trump isn’t afraid of dumping anyone

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Like a real crime boss, Trump never, ever dumps on family. No one else is safe, but the wife and kids are sacrosanct.

        Now that I think on it, the man does indeed seem to have a single moral. How odd I’m just now seeing it.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Of course that comes with the double standard that he is free to attack other politicians families, but his own is off limits.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Lol he fucking wishes he was in any way like a “real” crime boss.

          He’s never been put in a life or death situation like this, but I have zero doubt that if it came down to his life or the life of one of his kids, he would let his kid die without a second thought.

          Even if it came down to something like life in prison, he would throw his wife and kids under a bus to save himself in a heartbeat to save himself from prison.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      One of the few cronies he didn’t pardon was Cohen, and look how that worked out for him, lol.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Republicans will attack him either way.

    Pardons Hunter:
    “Biden is abusing the legal process for his son! Biden crime family! Reeeeee!!!”

    Refuses pardon:
    “Biden doesn’t even love his son enough to pardon him! Reeeeeee!!!”

    • msage@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      Which is why there is no dialogue with people arguing in bad faith.

      And we as a society need to recognise that, and act accordingly.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Nah, they don’t want to draw attention to Biden not abusing the justice system for personal gain, because it undercuts the whole “he’s abusing the justice system for personal gain by prosecuting political rivals!” It would absolutely be a counter productive strategy.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Yes. But more importantly, the ones steering the ship know they aren’t aiming their talking points at the faithful, but trying to convince people on the fence.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    As a semi competent politician its obvious 1) you have to say this and 2) you do your upsetting pardons after the election

  • barsquid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    He won’t need to. They’re in the wealthy class so the son won’t get much jail time if any. Nobody interested in hiring him would give a fuck about this conviction.

    We have a two-tier system. It has been obvious for a while, but Donald getting $1,000 scoldings for sending Trumpanzees after the court’s staff and family has shone a spotlight on the discrepancy.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      There’s always been a 2-tier system, through all nations and all times.

      One of my favorite parts of Noble House, set in 1840s Hong Kong, was a Chinese guy disgusted with the English notion of “equal under the law”. “Of course there are different laws for the rich and poor! Why else would I strive to be rich?!”

      I think on that now and again.

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I tried many, many times to read Noble House, but it was too long for me to get through it.

        Anywho, if I remember, wasn’t it set in the twentieth century?

    • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Pretty sure the judge had his hands tied for the max fine he could dole out to Trump. Still a problem that should be fixed but it’s not cause of the judge.

    • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      How on earth are trying to both sides this lmfao

      Learn to read

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        A leftist that points out inequality inherent in the system? What a strange thing to encounter on Lemmy. I’m positively flummoxed as to how this came about.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        5 months ago

        It isn’t a “both sides” thing, it is a class thing. The wealthy never face consequences unless they personally perform some heinous act, and even then it isn’t guaranteed.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I sympathize with being sick of bothsidesers, but I don’t think that’s what I’m doing here. The justice system is unfair as it is. Dems aren’t doing enough but Repubs want to make it even worse. If youths came out to vote in every election we wouldn’t be stuck with these two choices, but there is very clearly just one sane choice.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          If youths came out to vote in every election

          They did, and their candidate lost anyway. Too many olds spread across too many districts.

          Maybe if you can convince a few hundred thousand Youngs to move to Wyoming…

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Every election. The parties cannot count on the youth vote. They both seem to be acting like they don’t care what youths want. I am assuming a correlation there. Unfortunately it’s correlating in both directions.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              The parties cannot count on the youth vote.

              The youth vote isn’t a specific set of people. Its a continuous cohort of new voters entering the pool. And the parties are deeply wedded to the youth vote, in so far as they need to get their hooks in early in order to guarantee consistent turnout in later generations. Big investments in social media by partisan groups - from TPUSA to Joe Rogan sponsors - are predicated on winning over young people to right wing ideology. And Republicans consistently have some of the youngest elected party members because they aggressively recruit young people into leadership

              What can’t be counted on is the liberal party to engage with younger voting cohorts. You don’t see Democrats engaging with youth activist movements. You don’t see Democrats courting the college vote. You don’t see Democrats attempting to seat ideological 20-year-olds in city councils or state legislatures and build up the back bench. You don’t see the national party investing in professional party workers under the age of 30. Liberalism is the party of stoggie old dinosaurs telling their grandkids to shut up and vote for them, then getting mad when they only win 60-70% of the youth vote and still lose.

              When liberal democrats burn out in their 30s and 40s, because they’ve been lied to and betrayed over and over again, all we get from the liberal party is “The other guys are worse, though!” As though that shit was ever a winning strategy.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Literally the only answer to this question, though. He can’t say he will pardon him, politically it would be terrible and it might impact the trial itself. And he can wait until after the election and pardon him then, even though it will mean he was lying now.

    I don’t think this comment is particularly newsworthy.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Not pardoning him would piss them off more and gives them zero firepower on the topic…

      Edit: legitimate firepower anyways…they would still claim some bullshit about he’s a bad dad and doesn’t protect his son or some garbage like that.

      • OsaErisXero@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        Honestly, there’s a contingent who would dislike him less if he used a pardon to protect his son

        • Soup@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          See those people don’t actually like corruption, they just like winning. If they lose then corruption is bad, if they win then it’s just being clever. So they’d still hate him, probably moreso.

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Why does Joe Biden not simply say the Deep State arrested his Son and then Pardon him and Blame any and all NEGATIVE Media on the Deep State too?

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    5 months ago

    Does he need to for what is likely to result in the standard well-to-do white guy punishment of a small fine and community service?

    And when he does, watch a bunch of other rich white guys complain that he’s only being let off because he’s the president’s son.