We are Democrats. Biden should not have pardoned Hunter. He should now pardon Trump

As Democrats, we are deeply disappointed by President Joe Biden's decision to issue a full and unconditional pardon to his son Hunter, who was convicted of multiple tax and gun charges.

To be clear, we are not denying the president's absolute right to pardon anyone – including his son – and we are not necessarily disputing the president's logic, but there are a number of reasons why we, and many others Democrats, let us think so.

Politically, as the nation's highest-ranking official, what President Biden has done has undermined the Democratic Party, as well as Democrats' objections to what President-elect Donald Trump and his allies plan to do with the federal government.

What do we mean by this?

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At the most fundamental level, Democrats have long argued that Trump and Republicans have undermined the rule of law, both during Trump's first term and after.

Indeed, Donald Trump's alleged threats to democracy are a large part of the failure of Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.

And although voters clearly did not consider this a decisive issue, this argument is very attractive to those who support and wish to strengthen our democratic institutions.

President Biden has now significantly weakened that argument, largely because he has also broken the president's repeated vows that he not forgive his son.

Additionally, by reinforcing the idea that there are two standards of justice, one for the president's son and one for everyone else, Biden also gave credibility to Trump's claims that the justice system was politicized, weakening thus increasing the confidence of the Americans.

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In other words, Biden's pardon of his son belies claims that Democrats stand above Republicans in their commitment to the rule of law and their honesty with the American people.

To that end, the move was unpopular, even within President Biden's own party. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis criticized it, saying, “This is a bad precedent that subsequent presidents could abuse and would unfortunately tarnish his (Biden's) reputation.” »

Similarly, Democratic Senator Michael Bennett argued that “this further erodes Americans' confidence that the justice system is fair and equal for all”, while fellow Democratic Senator Gary Peters called the pardon “a inappropriate use of power.

That being said, this is not simply a debate about the impact of Biden's actions or the differences between how the two parties approach our democratic institutions.

This fundamentally hinders the Democratic Party's ability to attack the president-elect's approach to his second term.

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For example, it is now difficult for Democrats to oppose Trump's plans to nominate controversial nominees to his Cabinet via recess appointments, when a Democratic president has just undermined the fabric of our democracy by fully pardoning and unconditionally his son, who was duly convicted on a dozen criminal charges.

President Biden previously said he would not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, but he did so anyway. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

It would have been much easier, and dare we say defensible, if Biden had commuted his son's sentence based on Hunter's addiction and historical precedent. There was a basis for doing it.

We're not sure this would have received widespread support. But that probably wouldn't have received the same pushback as a full pardon for Hunter's crimes over the course of a decade.

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This seems to us to be an overreach and undermines the heart of the Democratic argument.

What President Biden just told the American people is that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, even though he promised not to.

By using the president's unlimited pardon power in an overtly personal way, Biden signaled that Democrats' supposed commitment to democratic values ​​is situational, rather than a commitment to the rule of law in any way of which it can be applied.

Let's hope that Hunter Biden's pardon will make history and that President Biden will not continue to use the pardon power indiscriminately. However, if President Biden wanted to issue an additional pardon, one suggestion offered by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would be to pardon Donald Trump.

Of course, this would be mostly symbolic, as cases involving Trump are being dismissed, but if Biden wants to heal rather than divide, this would be a good place to start.

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Furthermore, ending the cases involving the current and former president would allow the country to move forward and address larger challenges such as the increasingly aggressive Russia-China-Iran axis, the Middle East, inflation here at home, and much more.

It would also display a level of equality and parallelism that would suggest to the American people that our elected leaders are capable of cooperating and working in the best interests of the country, two qualities that Americans deserve.

Robert Green is the principal of Pierrepont Consulting and Analytics LLC, bringing 30 years of experience in research-based messaging. During his career, Green provided research advice for numerous political campaigns.

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