And your smile is a thin disguise.
What is unrelated song lyrics, Alex. .
Posted on 12/02/2024 9:05:24 AM PST by george76
Below is my column in Fox.com on President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter of not just his convicted crimes but any crimes that he may have chosen to commit. President Biden has set a standard that is not merely a new low but positively subterraneous for future presidents.
Here is the column:
President Joe Biden’s decision to use his presidential powers 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. 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 scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has cemented his legacy for many as not the Commander in Chief but the Liar in Chief.
Despite its noble origins and purpose, the pardon power historically has not been a pristine power used by past presidents. As I have previously written, it was used to benefit the political cronies of past presidents. President Warren Harding was even accused of selling pardons, including to mob enforcer Ignacio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf.” Former president William Clinton waited for the final days of his presidency to pardon his own brother as well as a major democratic donor.
In 2023, I wrote that Biden might follow this same pattern and pardon his son as a lame-duck president. The column suggested that Biden might withdraw as a candidate for office and then take the action as a father: “The pardon-and-apology approach might appeal to Biden not only as an effort to convert vice into virtue but to justify his withdrawal from the election as a selfless act.”
In the 2020 election and throughout his presidential term, Biden repeatedly lied to the American public with an ease and impunity that shocked even many political veterans in Washington. He was repeatedly asked if he knew about Hunter’s foreign dealings, including millions in alleged deals with Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, and other clients. President Biden lied and denied such knowledge. As I detailed in my testimony in the Biden impeachment hearing, he had repeated discussions of these dealings. He is even on tape discussing news stories on the dealings.
President Biden was also repeatedly asked if he met any of his son’s clients. He repeatedly lied. We have pictures and records of dinners and meetings with these clients. Hunter Biden was expressly thanked for his arranging such access to his father.
Few reporters pressed Biden on the corruption scandal, but they were often met not only with denials but angry retorts from the president. When Fox reporter Peter Doocy raised it, the President steamed “Yes, yes, yes. God love you, man — you’re a one-horse pony, I tell you.”
When CBS’s Bo Erickson broke ranks and raised the scandal and drew a rebuke from Biden “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.”
The President continued to lie throughout the election, the presidential debates, and his term.
Then, the press repeatedly asked him whether he would pardon his son. The President was now running for reelection and again lied. He and the White House said over and over again that no such pardon would occur and was not being contemplated. That was also a lie. NBC is reporting that, while issuing these denials last June, there were discussions about the pardon.
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. 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.
There were diamonds as gifts, lavish expense accounts, and a sports car, in addition to massive payments that Hunter claimed were “loans.” There are messages where Hunter belies the President’s portrayal of a political witch hunt, including messages like the one to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money is not sent to them immediately. In the WhatsApp message, Hunter stated:
“I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
The President has now pardoned Hunter for his convicted felonies and any crimes he may have committed from “Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.”
It is all now being buried under a sweeping immunity deal and a pack of presidential lies.
He’s been a piece of crap his whole life and political career. I told my son yesterday there’s not one thing in his entire political career that he did of use for the American people. I will happily retract that if somebody can come up with something he did of significance to help the American people other than himself and his family.
Has his brother been preemptively pardoned yet? Why not pardon the entire family?
The reporters/media who covered up all of the Biden scandal truth are just as guilty as Biden and his family. They’ve done incredible damage to the US.
But the greatest damage is to themselves and the entire Fourth Estate. We just don’t believe anything they report anymore.
I wonder if, when Hunter files his federal tax return next April, he can be charged with tax fraud if he doesn’t claim his bribery payments from China, Ukraine, and others over the last several years.
Not yet...however that may be the weak link that the “new” DOJ or “new” FBI can go after to finally attempt to destroy the Biden crime family.
He knows he was lying. The media knew he was lying. We knew he was lying when he said it. He knows they knew and we knew he was lying. So, in his book, everyone knew the truth and therefore, it could not be a lie. Capiche.
Only reason Biden will even HAVE a legacy is because historians are left wing academics who lie to change reality in the minds of the future population who won’t have read the day to day news. Well, now that I think of it, they also WROTE the day to day news so maybe even the future skeptical researchers will have trouble investigating the truth of his presidency.
We’re talking about a lifetime corrupt politician that in a room full of people that included obama, was THE ONLY person to vote against taking out Osama Bin Laden when the opportunity presented itself.......his legacy, for what it is, was determined long before he pardoned crackhead.
And it ain’t over yet.....wait ‘till the list of the rest of his pardons is made public......get your mind right.....I suspect it’s gonna be nothing less than infuriating.
Oh, I’m sure he will.
The only reason he pardoned Hunter starting in 2014 is to protect Joe himself, since they were both involved in illegal money making at Burisma.
How’s that logic work in law? Forgiving one for crimes we do not yet know about that might have been committed during the “Biden Family Corruption, drug, and Pedo Crime Wave”?
Not to worry, if we get a real DOJ and FBI back, we all know that Hunter is a loathsome little turd (he’s a Biden), and he’ll s**t on himself weekly, if not daily.
With his age and dementia, I don’t think he gives a damn.
Does the pardon prevent the US from recovering the illicit funds Hunter received?
” I will happily retract that if somebody can come up with something he did of significance to help the American people other than himself and his family.”
You don’t have to retract anything, just smile at the possible results. Starting in mid January the new Trump DOJ and FBI are going into effect. And the past, to include Hunter’s ability to use the fifth as a crutch is gone.
The Fifth Amendment ensures the protection against self-incrimination, a fundamental right in the United States legal system. If he is called into congress to answer questions concerning his activities and his connection to anyone and he refuses to answer he is no longer able to plead the fifth. A no answer now is a contempt of congress. So either he goes to jail, without the ability to be pardoned by daddy, or he talks. So Joe just handed anyone Hunter wishes to talk about anywhere in the party, or the world, and he doesn’t incriminate them, or he refuses to talk, he violates a new law and he’s back in the slammer along with anyone he does squeal on. If he can’t be incriminated, then he can’t expect it.
The pads are off now. Thank you Joe for pardoning him. You’ve done a great service to justice and to this country (whether you knew it or not).
wy69
What is unrelated song lyrics, Alex. .
Good point—and little known legal fact.
There is no statute of limitations on tax fraud—so if Hunter does not disclose everything in his next tax return he starts a new clock on all the old tax fraud.
The pardon has been carefully concocted to protect him from any new evidence of criminal behavior that might emerge.....soooooo..... In doing so it also protects Joe from being swept up in any of Hunter’s wrongdoing....and the family.
That’s why I’m actually glad he did it. WE know he’s been a piece of crap his entire life, but the left still tries to pretend he’s some kind of statesman, foreign policy expert, and now a ‘great President’. He’s sealed his own fate with this move, putting his son above the law will prove we’re right and they’re wrong...eventually.
Also true for a lot of stuff as will be disclosed over the coming months and years...
I’m not sure the last chapter in the Biden Crime Family has been written yet, but I do think history will not be kind to them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.