With the pardon of Hunter Biden, President Biden establishes a legacy: liar

Joe Biden has repeatedly lied to Americans about matters of major importance, from his ability to remain president to his intention to give special treatment to Hunter.

There was no better way for President Joe Biden to cement his legacy.

By pardoning his son Hunter Biden, the president showed the country on Sunday who he was one last time before leaving office.

A liar.

For months, the elder Biden had promised the American people that he would do no special favors for his son. Hunter was convicted this year of federal gun crimes and federal tax evasion charges and was just days away from sentencing.

As recently as last month, Biden asserted that he would not use his executive power to benefit his son.

“We have been asked this question several times and our answer is valid, which is no,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on November 7.

However, after the Thanksgiving holiday, the president reportedly had a dramatic change of heart. Yet I think this is what Biden planned to do all along, and it contradicts Biden’s repeated promises of “honesty” and “decency.”

“Throughout my entire career, I have followed one simple principle: simply tell the truth to the American people,” Biden said in his statement regarding his son’s pardon.

During his four years as president, Biden did the opposite: he repeatedly lied to the country about issues of major importance, from his ability to remain president to his plans to give special treatment to Hunter.

And that is how he will be remembered.

A blanket pardon protects the entire shady Biden family

Biden sought to touch the hearts of Americans by highlighting family ties.

“I hope Americans understand why a father and a president would make this decision,” Biden wrote.

Perhaps they would have been if Biden had been more open about his plans from the start. The fact that he intentionally misled voters when it was politically expedient for him to do so is another thing entirely.

Recall that just weeks before Hunter’s first conviction in the gun case in June, former President (now President-elect) Donald Trump was convicted of federal charges in a secret trial.

At the time of Trump’s conviction, Biden was preaching on social media that “no one is above the law.”

We now know that this statement comes with a huge asterisk when it concerns the Biden family.

Biden’s pardon of Hunter also goes much further than his recent convictions. It also covers “offenses against the United States that he committed or may have committed or participated in during the period from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024.”

The sweeping nature of the pardon negates any further investigation into Hunter’s shady overseas business deals and allegations of influence peddling, including when his father was still vice president.

Congressional Republicans have sought to tie the Biden family’s “affairs” to the president himself, so it doesn’t take much imagination to understand how this pardon also helps President Biden.

Americans did not believe Biden’s lies. This is why we have Trump.

Democrats are still reeling from losing the election so resoundingly. But the writing had been on the wall for a long time.

President Biden lost voters’ trust months ago when he refused to admit his declining physical and mental health. When it was clear to the country that he should not seek a second term, Biden, his family and a complicit media legacy attempted to undermine citizens.

After the disastrous debate between Biden and Trump in June, the charade ended and within weeks, Biden left the race.

Her late decision left Democrats with few options other than Vice President Kamala Harris. And we saw how well it worked.

Throughout his political career, Joe Biden has tried to woo voters by portraying him as the “nice guy” in the room. His actions, however, prove otherwise.

And his pardon of Hunter reveals one last time who Biden really is.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques