Joe Biden's last-minute pardons do not go down well with many
The now former president, Joe Biden, fired out a hugely controversial announcement during his dying minutes in office, pre-emptively pardoning multiple members of his own family.
America’s presidential pardon power is the sort of thing we, in other countries, might call nakedly stupid. Or to soften that language, we might say it’s open to abuse.
The president can pardon federal crimes (as opposed to crimes under state law). And he can do it, as Mr Biden did today, speculatively. None of the people named in the announcement have been charged with anything; Mr Biden’s argument is that he’s protecting them from potential politically motivated prosecutions in the future.
“I am exercising my power under the constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden,” he said.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence.”
This has not gone down well, even among those usually sympathetic to the outgoing president.
“The way it was done suggests there was something wrong with doing it. He tried to slip it in the final minutes,” said David Axelrod, who was Barack Obama’s top political adviser.
“It just made the whole thing look tawdry.”
Ya don’t say!
Tim Miller, an anti-Trump conservative who works for The Bulwark, was a fair bit blunter, saying: “This is f***ing grotesque.
