Despite denying the possibility earlier, Joe Biden issued a pardon to his son Hunter Biden on Sunday night. This came as a reversal for the president who repeatedly said he would not use his executive authority to pardon his son or commute his sentence. Issuing the statement, Biden said, "I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."
The internet reacts:
The President-elect Donald Trump did not take much time to fire back as he took to Truth Social to slam Biden for "an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!" He asked, "Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?"
However, Donald Trump Jr. had a more direct criticism of Biden, who wrote on Truth Social, "Everyone with a brain knew he was going to do it. He was just going to do it when it was if no consequence to democrat electability.”
While he did not post any comment directly on the news, Elon Musk reposted Donald Trump Jr.'s comment on X, where Trump Jr. did not include the "with a brain" part of his Truth Social post.
Now, the pardon has divided the public across political lines. Trump supporters and other conservatives are outraged and crying corruption while liberals are largely saying that this is what you get when your candidate obliterates political norms and pardons all his buddies at the end of his own term. Meanwhile, leftists are complaining that Biden hasn’t used his power to override other miscarriages of justice and has failed to pardon people on death row despite evidence of their innocence. But most of what you’ll see on the internet is a breeding ground of various memes and liberals rubbing it in some rather specific faces!
One of the most popular and most shared memes is Hunter Biden’s face on Heath Ledger’s Joker’s body from the cult scene of ‘The Dark Knight’ as he is seen roaming around the city carefreely with a cigarette in his mouth.
Another user posted a clipping where some boys are seen going crazy at a rave party indulging in all sorts of questionable activities. The user captioned the video as, “Hunter's last three hours of full immunity.” Someone else quipped along the same line and said, “Hunter Biden has until midnight to commit whatever federal crime he wants!”
The Debt Collective had a rather witty take to the situations where they demanded all the student loans to be pardoned by Biden. They wrote on their X account, “All student loans are hereby named Hunter Biden.”
Another netizen posted the little girl with trying her hands in makeup clipping, comparing Biden’s sentiment to the little girl’s joy. The user shared the video, writing, “Biden pardoning Hunter with just 7 weeks of his presidency left!”
Hunter Biden was scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 12 for his conviction on federal gun charges. He also was set to be sentenced Dec. 16 in a separate criminal case in which he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges in September.
The president issued a "full and unconditional pardon" for any offenses Hunter Biden has “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024," according to the White House statement.