12/3/24

BIDEN'S BETRAYAL

    (Note: This post originally went out as an email because I wasn't able to access the website service. I apologize for using the word “betray” that was the centerpiece of an earlier post – but no other word fits.-   Brian Jones)
 
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, by pardoning his son, Hunter, has disgraced the presidency, destroyed his legacy and betrayed all who trust in justice.
    Biden has cleared the way for Donald Trump to continue his abuse of the presidential pardon powers, which began in Trump’s first term and is sure to accelerate in his second.
    If Trump, for example, carries through with his threat to pardon the outlaws who overran the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the excuse should be written large on Washington’s memorial’s and buildings:
   “Joe Biden did it, too.”
 
I’LL NOT GET BOGGED DOWN in Hunter’s crimes and travails.
   What counts is that he was convicted by a jury of federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges.
    Beyond those crimes, he traded on his father’s name for years in his business deals.
    That the Biden family has been beset by tragedy, a terrible car accident, his Hunter's brother’s death from brain cancer, Hunter’s drug addiction, is truly sad.
    It's no excuse for the misuse of the Constitution’s unique pardon authority to keep a family member out of the slammer.
 
COMPOUNDING THE PARDON DISGRACE is Biden’s version of the Big Lie. He and his spokespersons repeatedly said that he would never use those powers to protect his son his son.
    For example, after Hunter’s gun conviction last June, Biden said:
    “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
    The pardon means that we cannot believe a word he says.
    About anything.
 
I BELIEVED IN JOE BIDEN. And maybe you did, too.
     I thought he had rescued the United States from the depravity and disgrace of Donald Trump’s first term; I respected the way he returned the country to its normal, if imperfect, function. And all of that eloquent "soul of America" stuff.
    Which is now meaningless.
    One of the few defenses that the forces of good have had following the Nov. 5 election has been the moral authority against which to measure Trump’s corruption.
    Now Biden -- selfishly, hypocritically, faithlessly -- has stripped the country of even that standard.
    We are betrayed.

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