Biden’s historic act of forgiveness will always be overshadowed by the pardon of his son | Opinion
Proving second chances don’t only apply to the first family, President Joe Biden pardoned 39 Americans and commuted sentences for 1,499 more on Thursday. It was the most acts of clemency by a U.S. president ever in one day, and it was the least Biden could do after pardoning his own son this month in an abuse of power that will shadow him into history.
Only 2 in 10 Americans said they approved of the pardon of his son in a poll released this week.
With only about seven weeks left at the White House, the president drew swift and scorching criticism this month for pardoning Hunter Biden after saying he wouldn’t. Now, he’s trying to try to get himself off a naughty list and onto a nice one by showing leniency to hundreds of other families.
It won’t work.
The damage was done when Biden exerted his presidential powers to pardon Hunter Biden. More than half the respondents in a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research — 51% — disapprove of Biden pardoning his son after saying he wouldn’t. Only 22% approve of the action Biden took fearing more punishment in a Donald Trump presidency.
Presidential pardons have long come under scrutiny and been subject to the sledgehammer of public opinion. Usually, though, they come in the final days of office, not the final months, when the nation’s focus is shifting to the president’s successor and issues of forgiveness can be more easily compared to other presidents’ final acts or at least more quickly move off the front page.
It’s as if Biden has realized the error of his ways and is trying to shift the narrative, selling the concept of clemency like it’s the biggest batch of Christmas cookies ever baked. Yet Thursday’s good deed won’t get the great reception it deserves because Biden so prominently put his own family first in a show of self-service over public service that most Americans think went too far.
Imagine the narrative if Biden had heaped his presidential powers of forgiveness on others first.
Sure, we love it that America is a land of second chances, but we loathe it when the elite benefit from opportunities the rest of us will never see. We appreciate charity. But we like clarity, too, and when the rule of law bends for the powerful in ways that never do for us, we get bent.
Biden does deserve some credit. His news release notes that he has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same time in their first terms. It also notes that he is the first president ever to issue categorical pardons to “individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation.”
America is at its best when it considers second chances and reconsiders outdated thinking.
That’s why many South Carolinians who read what the White House wrote to explain the pardons of Denita Nicole Parker of Gaffney and Shawnte Dorothea Williams of Columbia will feel good about it. They should. Their offenses were not violent, and they were committed decades ago.
Parker is a 43-year-old who committed her crime in her 20s. She’s described as a dedicated parent to her two children who works full-time and volunteers with a charitable organization delivering meals a few times a month. She organizes donations for homeless people and buys holiday gifts for children in her community. She also started a program that feeds about 100 families. Those who know her call her law-abiding, trustworthy, dependable and dedicated.
Williams is a 45-year-old who committed a drug offense, also in her 20s. Since then, she has been steadily employed and involved in her community. She works in her church’s food pantry and serves as a greeter on Sunday mornings. She’s described as loyal and dependable.
They sound like model citizens who may have made a bad mistake when they were younger.
Reading the descriptions, it’s only natural to wonder how others would describe any of us in just a few sentences. What words would they use? What words would you use to describe yourself?
While you’re thinking about that, think about this: With Thursday’s acts of forgiveness, President Biden has reminded all of us that crime is mostly a young person’s game and that time allows people to move past bad decisions. Especially if you know the right people at the right time.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Biden’s historic act of forgiveness will always be overshadowed by the pardon of his son | Opinion."