President Joe Biden will not pardon Hunter Biden if he’s convicted on federal charges, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.

Asked during the daily briefing if the president would pardon or commute his son’s sentence if he gets convicted on the gun charges against him, Jean-Pierre told reporters he would not. It’s the first time the White House has explicitly said a potential pardon is not on the table following Hunter Biden’s indictment this week.

In her response, Jean-Pierre noted that she answered a similar question after the president’s son was first hit with a felony gun charge.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      They don’t actually care about Hunter or even the charges; heck they probably don’t even agree with the gun background check law he broke. They just want a way to go after Biden and take him down. They want something to make him unpopular and rally the rest of the normal public behind so they can get him to lose. Once he’s out of the picture they can have their way on Abortion or Immigration or whatever their single issue voting topic is.

    • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      It’s their only avenue to ‘hurt’ Biden, also it’s the old 'I’ll do to you what you do to me shit, because they’re all getting charged with shit left right and centre, they’re gonna do it to them, just for the fuck of it.

    • solstice@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Because Biden is the political equivalent of a turkey sandwich. Boring, bland, nobody’s favorite, hard to criticize, hard to love, forgettable. Deflecting blame off the last guy is all they got and it’s pathetic how hard they’re reaching.

    • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Well, it all comes down to Trump. He won last time, in what was really actually a surprise to many. He pulled that off, also, seemingly surprisingly, not in spite of but in large part due to a lot of the things people assumed would hurt him. He was dodgy, he was brash, he was inappropriate and he had a very checkered past.

      He seemed to Intuit exactly how these seeming electoral disadvantages would actually play very well and certainly even continued to help after he won. But to at least some degree this did start to catch up to him somewhat over the course of his presidency and to a limited degree his opponents were able to impose some consequences that seemed to hurt him at least a little, notably being twice impeached. For all their bluster about “nothing burgers” this did seem to actually rattle his supporters as it was to some degree a way of objectively nailing down that he really was actually a bit of a crim and it wasn’t all just self-created bad boy mystique and wasn’t just character assassination. For all they might say about the fairness of it, he was undeniably impeached, twice.

      This seems to have been a festering sore spot for his supporters, especially in the wake of his defeat and now unofficial re-election campaign. Now it’s no longer so certain he can pull off the same magic trick twice and turn his flaws in to virtues, it’s imporant for his campaign to try and level the playing field. They need to try and change the equation where on the one hand you have one candidate with a shady background whose known to have been impeached for their dodgy behaviour, and one who hasn’t. It’s going to be a tall order even for “alternate facts” driven campaigning to somehow elevate Trump to equal footing so the better strategy is to try and find a way to drag his opponent down instead so that now, for anyone who might care, you can say "look, they all do it, they’re just as bad as each other in this aspect.l, and besides when it happened to our guy it was rigged and unfair '. It muddies the waters just enough. Also if they get any traction with this, if they impeach Biden, it’s a tough spot for Biden’s camp for an additional reason because if they defend on grounds of some sort of unfairness about the process, well, logically the whole impeaching thing must be pretty meaningless then because either all candidates are dodgy to some extent and it doesn’t matter or the impeachment process is so partisan that it’s conclusions are irrelevant and Trump doesn’t look so bad anymore.

      • andrewta@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Although I heard a rumor that his dad might be better then trump. Although it was just a rumor. Not sure if it was accurate.

  • Kittengineer@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Something something drain the swamp. Trump drained the swamp by appointing his kids and his friends kids White House positions and forcing everyone to use his hotels.

    Don’t even get me started how Fauci is corrupt!

    /s

    There is no logic in the Republican Party

    • solstice@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It’s really amazing how much these people hate doctors and healthcare. Losing their shot over Obamacare and then going as far as death threats to fauci for daring to suggest you wear a mask get vaccinated and wash your fucking hands. The horror.

      • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s become a party of resentment. Doctors tell them they’re wrong so they resent doctors. Colleges tell them that their ideas are historically inaccurate and broken so they resent colleges. Artists and celebrities criticize their ideas and politicians so they resent artists and celebrities. Athletes don’t go along with their beliefs so they resent athletes. When Trump won, they had lost multiple presidential elections in a row and he promised that he’d get even with all those people. He harassed athletes and celebrities and cut funding to colleges and doctors, all because of resentment.

        GOP is nothing but the party of grievances. They didn’t even discuss policy at the last debate.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 months ago

    Let’s waste less time on this non-story. How about both parties in power focus on helping the average American citizen?

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      The difference between how Biden is dealing with this and how Trump dealt with crimes committed by those around him is very much relevant to understand how they see and run the state and that has an impact on people’s everyday lives. Personally, I’m not a big fan of Biden, but pretending there’s no difference between him and Trump is disingenuous to say the least.

      • solstice@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I’m not a huge Biden fan but I’m surprised how much he’s grown on me. Definitely not my first choice but he’s done way better than expected.

    • Swim@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      i thought it was because they are more worried about campaigning to be reelected at this point

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Drop in the bucket holding the American legal system.

        If that was the reason he chose not to pardon his son, that would be very nice of him though, I guess.

      • VentraSqwal@links.dartboard.social
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        10 months ago

        Considering the shit stains Trump pardoned I don’t think I could bring myself to care about who Biden pardoned. That ship has so sailed.

      • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Ppfff. American laws allow law enforcement to steal from you or murder you, deny workers a living wage or representation, and recently stole the right of bodily autonomy from 167 million women, to name a few national legislative embarassments. You’d be a heartless, pedantic fool to begrudge an old man keeping his remaining son out of jail for filling out paperwork wrong.

  • nogooduser@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I reckon that he would if a) Hunter is sent to prison and b) Joe doesn’t get re-elected.

    I can’t imagine that Joe would care enough about the bad press at the end of his career to leave Hunter inside.

    • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Actually, in that scenario, it would be more important than ever, assuming Trump was taking office. Biden muddying the waters with inappropriate pardons would weaken any attempt by the courts to stop Trump from pardoning himself.

      • Neato@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        It wouldn’t weaken it unless the court tried and failed to stop it. Someone would have to sue Biden for it and I’m unsure there’s a party with standing.

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Don’t you dare use logic and shit up in here. There’s no way a politician actively campaigning isn’t telling the full truth about everything.