Watergate Prosecutor: Why Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son Hunter

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : (Trump nominated him last week.)
49% : Ahead of his second term, Trump has promised to pardon all of those convicted of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
43% : All in all, Trump granted 237 acts of clemency in his first four years in the White House, including at least one that I approve of: his pardon of women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony for voting illegally.
36% : Consider this: Had the president never vowed to withhold his power to pardon his son, there would be no grounds for Democrats saying he reversed a promise and is paving the way for Trump to pardon any criminal crony he wishes to protect.
34% : Those threatened by Trump include Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and his team assigned to investigate Trump's role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and his mishandling of classified government documents; judges and prosecutors involved in other criminals cases against him; Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), former head of the House Intelligence committee; impeachment witness Alex Vindman and many of those involved in the impeachment and Jan. 6 committees; former heads of military and intelligence agencies; and too many others to list.
32% : The motley crew of criminal loyalists pardoned by Trump in his first term includes his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, found guilty of giving false statements to the FBI about his Russia contacts; Roger Stone, the political operative found guilty of witness tampering, lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager who was found guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud; and Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist who was convicted of contempt for defying a congressional subpoena but released from prison last month in time to work on the 2024 Trump campaign.
32% : Despite the blowback he now faces over his son, I would urge the president to double down by granting preemptive pardons to protect many people who have worked hard for his administration and for the American people, but who have been threatened with political prosecution by Trump.
29% : I believe justice was served by Biden's pardon of his son, and I would urge the president to go further and issue preemptive pardons to protect others from the baseless, politically motivated prosecutions that Trump has pledged to pursue against his perceived enemies.
23% : But let's be honest: In his first term, Trump already issued legally unjustified pardons to a rogue's gallery of loyalists and relatives.
19% : And Trump and his Republican allies couldn't call the president a hypocrite.
14% : Even if Biden's pardon of his son is politically questionable, it is nonsensical to argue that it somehow opens the door for future pardons by Trump.
6% : Remember that it was Republican members of Congress who began investigating Biden's son to bolster Trump and weaken Joe Biden before his expected run against Trump in 2020.

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