Joe Biden shamelessly bailed out his son Hunter by granting him a “full and unconditional” presidential pardon while thousands of people in the United States are incarcerated for similar crimes. The pardon cleared Hunter Biden of a jury conviction for gun charges in Delaware and his guilty plea to tax charges in California.
Hunter Biden was found to have lied on a gun form by indicating that he was not using drugs at the time of purchase. In the California case, Hunter Biden admitted to having the funds to pay some or all of his outstanding tax debts but instead chose to maintain his luxury lifestyle.
Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden came after repeatedly making promises to the American public that he would not interfere with the criminal proceedings against his son. Joe Biden had further promised that if found guilty, he would not pardon his son Hunter.
Joe Biden’s political career has been a lengthy one, spanning the length of four decades. Before becoming president of the United States, before he was VP to Barack Obama, he served as a senator representing Delaware for 36 years.
During his time as senator, Joe Biden repeatedly threw his support behind bills that would dole out increasingly harsh punishment for drug crimes.
Joe Biden co-sponsored the Anti-drug Abuse Act of 1986. This act established mandatory minimum sentences triggered by specific quantities of cocaine. Congress also established much tougher sentences for crack-cocaine offenses than for powder cocaine cases. For example, distribution of just 5 grams of crack carries a minimum 5-year federal prison sentence, while for powder cocaine, distribution of 500 grams – 100 times the amount of crack cocaine – carries the same sentence.
Joe Biden also drafted and co-sponsored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, better known as the 1994 Crime Bill. It is the largest crime bill in the history of the United States and consisted of 356 pages that provided for 100,000 new police officers and $9.7 billion in funding for prisons among other measures.
Today, drug offenses account for the incarceration of over 360,000 people, with Black people disproportionately represented in that figure.
In a press release about the pardon Joe Biden states,
“…people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.”
Joe Biden’s selective empathy for drug addiction is yet another example of the rules for thee but not for me policy of the political and economic elites of the United States.
