POLITICO Nightly: Biden lets Trump off the hook

By Calder McHugh U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the Classroom to Career Summit in the East Room of the White House on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images MAGA GOP ARE INCAPABLE OF GOVERNING SO WAVE THE BANNER OF PHONY OUTRAGE....WHAT HAVE THEY DONE? NOTHING...WELL MAGA GOP PROTECTED APPLIANCES! POLITICO'S REPORTING IS DISAPPOINTING BY REPRESENTING 'BOTH SIDEISM'!  THOSE DEMOCRATS WHO QUICKLY VOICED THEIR COMMENTS ARE UNINFORMED! MANY OF US PAID ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS & THE AGREEMENT THAT WAS IN PLACE!  HUNTER BIDEN WAS TARGETED BECAUSE HE WAS PRESIDENT BIDEN'S SON...NOTHING ELSE!  TRUMP PARDONED CONVICTED FELONS & MILITARY WAR CRIMINALS (AT PETE HEGSETH'S REQUEST).  DID REPUBLICANS EXPRESS SIMILAR OUTRAGE? ADDED:  excerpts:  President Biden also mentioned "political opponents in Congress," whom he credited for instigating the charges and for ensuring that a plea deal, composed in July, fell apart in August. He released a statement on Sunday, saying, “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport. Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends. In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded." Republicans say Biden is a ‘liar’ after he pardons Hunter, his son excerpts: “Joe Biden has lied from start to finish,” said House Oversight Chair James Comer in a post on X. “It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.” The Kentucky Republican was one of the chairs of the months-long impeachment inquiry focused on business deals of Hunter Biden and other family members. JAMES COMER HAD NO PROOF,  SOLICITED REPORTS FROM SPIES & LIARS WHO LACKED CREDIBILITY, INCLUDING ONE IN PRISON....HE WAS CHALLENGED TO FILE IMPEACHMENT, FAILED TO DO SO BECAUSE HE HAD NO PROOF....JUST HIS WILD ACCUSATIONS. THE ORANGE TURD PARDONED CONVICTED CRIMINALS WHO SURROUNDED HIM, PARDONED MILITARY WAR CRIMINALS AT PETE HEGSETH'S URGINGS....JAN 6 CAPITOL RIOTERS WERE CONVICTED FOR THEIR CRIMES - MANY HAVE PREVIOUS VIOLENT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS, MANY ASSAULTED OFFICERS...TRUMP'S DELUSION TO JUSTIFY PARDONING CRIMINALS... excerpt:  President-elect Donald Trump called the pardon “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice” on his Truth Social platform. And he hinted at what could be future thinking about how the Hunter Biden pardon could impact those charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” THERE WAS A PLEA AGREEMENT THAT WAS IGNORED - IT PROVES THAT WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED WAS A POLITICALLY MOTIVATED TRAVESTY! REPUBLICANS ARE NEVER GOOD WITH FACTS! excerpt: Sen. John Barrasso, the number three Senate Republican, said in a post on X, “Tonight’s pardon is wrong. It proves to the American people that there is a two-tier system of justice.” And Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed disappointment in his former colleague, saying he was “shocked” because Biden said “many many times he wouldn’t” pardon Hunter. “I believed him,” Grassley said in a post on X. “Shame on me.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Biden’s pardon an “admission that Hunter is a criminal.” PILL PUSHER RONNY JACKSON OPINED,  AFTER BEING DEMOTED BY THE NAVY FOR HIS EGREGIOUS CONDUCT! And Texas Republicans were outraged. Rep. Ronny Jackson referred to the Bidens as “DISGRACEFUL LIARS!!” in his post, and Rep. Wesley Hunt said, “Joe Biden just did the thing he told us he would never do, PARDONING his son for crimes he and the majority of the media told us he never committed.” DEMOCRATS!  Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under former President Barack Obama, called the pardon “warranted,” saying, “No USAtty would have charged this case given the underlying facts.” And Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), one of the impeachment managers against Trump, told CNN earlier in the day that any possibility of a pardon for Hunter Biden, could be rooted in taking issue with the case itself. “There is a defense called selective prosecution, if you can show that the government has a set of cases that all look alike, but they pick one person out to prosecute based on, say, a political animus towards the person, which essentially is the claim that Donald Trump has been making about why he was targeted,” Raskin said, indicating that Hunter Biden may have been targeted because of his relationship to the president. “The power exists for the president to show mercy for people who have committed crimes and either suffered some kind of injustice in the process or the punishment is disproportionate.” LOTS OF WILD, UNPROVEN ACCUSATIONS! KASH PATEL IS POLITICALLY WARPED & INCOMPETENT! excerpt:  The pardon came the day after Trump announced he would nominate Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, as FBI director. Last year, when it appeared that Hunter Biden was on the verge of a plea deal to resolve his legal troubles, Patel criticized the deal as unusually lenient. (The deal later collapsed.) AND: “How the pardon happened,” by Eugene Daniels and Rachel Bade, POLITICO.  excerpt:  “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden wrote. “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.” THE REACTION: The criticism has been expectedly withering among Republicans, who claimed vindication last night for their yearslong campaign targeting the Biden family’s business dealings.  MAGA MORON JAMES COMER PRESENTED SPIES & LIARS, INCLUDING ONE ALREADY IN PRISON! THERE WAS NO PROOF FOR HIS WILD DELUSIONS! CONDUCTED A CAMPAIGN TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT BIDEN....NEVER HAD ANY PROOF, REFUSED TO BRING IMPEACHMENT EVEN WHEN CHALLENGED! FACTS MATTER! Look no further than House Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.), whose investigations yielded no smoking guns but who gladly pulled the trigger on a fiery statement soon after last night’s announcement. UNACCOUNTABLE — It’s the most sweeping presidential pardon since Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon , a grant of clemency so broad that even Democrats were openly criticizing the president today. Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter drew criticism from all corners the day after he issued it, underscoring for posterity an unflattering aspect of his presidency: For all Biden’s insistence that the rule of law was of paramount importance and his talk about restoring democracy, in the end he made it much harder for his own party to hold President-elect Donald Trump to account. In the most recent instance, Biden and his aides repeated the same line over and over when it came to Hunter Biden’s legal troubles: He’s not considering a pardon for his son. Even if the charges seemed harsher because Hunter was the president’s son, the president’s commitment to the justice system was such that he’d allow the process to continue. Now, we’ve learned none of it was true. And it’s created a thorny political problem for the Democrats who are still in Washington and are charged with cleaning up Biden’s mess. Already, Trump has signaled he’ll use Biden’s pardon of his son as justification for his own desire to pardon Jan. 6 rioters. Trump had been largely silent on the Jan. 6 issue since his victory, which had loyalists worrying about his commitment to the pardons. But on Sunday evening, he posted on Truth Social, “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump’s statement makes little practical sense — Hunter’s legal situation has nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol. But the Biden administration’s dissembling about whether the president would pardon his own son makes it harder to argue that Trump is unique in his use of pardons to excuse the behavior of his allies. And it undermines the Democratic critique that Trump’s actions “undermine our democracy” and put “his own campaign of revenge and retribution above law and order at every turn.” Had Biden insisted from the beginning that the investigations against Hunter were politicized endeavors that he might take steps to fix, his ultimate decision might be more defensible. But for years, he used his son’s legal trouble as a way to elevate his bona fides on the issue of the rule of law — the argument went that not even the Justice Department’s actions against those closest to him could shake his belief in the righteousness of the American legal system. That line of reasoning no longer holds any weight, nor will a similar one from future Democratic leaders, given Biden’s last-minute reversal. “It justifies what Trump wants to do,” Samuel Morison, a lawyer focused on clemency who spent 13 years in the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, told POLITICO today . “Now, he was going to do it anyway. But it gives him some political cover. I think some January 6 pardons are probably coming — at least some, maybe all.” The pardon issue isn’t the only action that let Trump off the hook. When the Justice Department raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022 to collect classified documents that he’d allegedly taken from the White House, the scandal threatened to envelop the former president and angered even his own supporters . But it turned out Biden himself had stashed some classified documents of his own in Delaware from his time as vice president. Biden was eventually cleared of criminal liability, but only after special counsel Robert Hur delivered a report that launched all kinds of other questions about his own fitness for office. When Biden defended himself after Hur’s report, Democrats lined up behind the leader of their party, who at the time was still running for president. But after his blanket pardon of Hunter this weekend and the stain it will leave on his legacy, Democratic lawmakers are suddenly unafraid to sound off against him directly. “President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) wrote on X today . Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) followed, arguing , “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.” Other Democrats empathized with his desire to protect his son from a Trump Justice Department that could seek further retribution. But they were also clear-eyed about the damage he’s done to the business of protecting the nation’s democratic norms. “As a father, I get it,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said . “But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh .   A message from Instagram: Instagram Teen Accounts: a protected experience for teens, guided by parents Instagram Teen Accounts are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, providing automatic protections for who can contact their teens and the content they can see. The impact: Built-in limits give parents more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens. Learn more.   What'd I Miss? — Democrats openly criticize Biden’s pardon: Democrats today began more forcefully criticizing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter Biden , saying that he’s giving his son special treatment and further eroding confidence in the rule of law. Just hours after Biden pardoned his son, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan called it “an improper use of power.” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, a frontline Democrat, said Biden “made the wrong — Supreme Court appears skeptical of vaping firm’s challenge to FDA: The Supreme Court appeared unsympathetic today to a challenge from the maker of flavored e-cigarette products to an FDA decision denying authorization to bring them to market. Texas-based Triton Distribution argued that the court should affirm a lower court’s ruling that the agency reconsider its applications to sell flavored liquids containing nicotine that e-cigarettes heat for a user to inhale. The FDA has denied Triton’s applications to sell the flavored e-liquids out of concern that they appeal to children. — House staffer arrested for entering Capitol complex with ammunition : A House staffer was arrested this morning for entering the Cannon House Office Building with ammunition , according to a statement from the U.S. Capitol Police. Capitol Police said the staffer is Michael Hopkins, who is the communications director for Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.). THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION SKEPTICS AT THE WHEEL  — President-elect Donald Trump has rounded out his roster of health agency nominees by picking Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist who criticized lockdowns, school closures and health agency leadership during the pandemic, to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya joins a cohort of Trump nominees who made claims during the pandemic that were derided by health officials like Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins as they led the Covid response. Those nominees include Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who criticized the Biden administration’s Covid response and is Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Trump’s picks speak to a larger sentiment among many Americans that health officials got some of the pandemic response wrong — particularly on school closures and lockdowns. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP — President-elect Donald Trump has nominated investment banker Warren Stephens to be his ambassador to the United Kingdom . Stephens, a financial backer of Trump’s campaign, would be among at least five other billionaires selected for major roles by the president-elect. Stephens donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign over the summer after supporting other Republican presidential candidates, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. In 2016, Stephens gave a combined $5.9 million to a pair of super PACs that spent heavily to prevent Trump from winning the Republican nomination. BUMPED UP   — Sen. Amy Klobuchar is expected to be tapped for Senate Democrats’ No. 3 spot in caucus leadership elections this week, according to two people familiar with the shuffling. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is expected to fill the no. 4 role, which Klobuchar (D-Minn.) currently holds as chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee. The No. 3 spot is currently held by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is head of Senate Democrats’ Policy and Communications Committee.   A message from Instagram:    AROUND THE WORLD Friedrich Merz, former CDU/CSU parliamentary party leader in the Bundestag, comes to a press conference at the federal press conference on a possible candidacy for the CDU chairmanship in Berlin, Tuesday, Feb.25, 2020. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP) NOSTALGIA TRAP  — Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, is campaigning on his own version of MAGA, vowing to restore his country’s lost sense of greatness in profoundly insecure times. But given the immense global challenges that Germany now confronts, from industrial decline to war in Europe, Merz may find himself virtually powerless to realize his nostalgic vision of restoring economic growth and a sense of security . Merz and his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) appear set to assume power within months following the November collapse of Germany’s left-leaning three-party coalition. With an early election slated for Feb. 23, Germany’s conservatives are far ahead in the polls on 32 percent support. That puts Merz, a 69-year-old corporate lawyer by trade, on the cusp of fulfilling his longtime dream of becoming chancellor. He could scarcely have imagined, however, that his dream would come true at a time of such peril for Europe — and for Germany in particular. THE END IS NIGH — The end of Michel Barnier’s extremely brief time as France’s prime minister looks inevitable as his government hurtles toward a no-confidence vote that it is expected to lose later this week . Days of tension have culminated in a high-stakes vote in parliament that could trigger a financial crisis for the eurozone’s second-largest economy and send ripples of fear around the bloc. The French prime minister has been battling to reassure jittery markets and pass a budget that will fill a black hole in French finances. But those efforts might now be wasted. Today, Barnier, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, used a controversial constitutional maneuver to bypass parliament and force through a social security financing bill. In response, the left-wing opposition put forward a no-confidence motion, which will be put to a vote on Wednesday or Thursday. Opposition forces, including the leftist New Popular Front coalition and the far-right National Rally, have warned they will vote to topple the government.   Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments —free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now .     Nightly Number 3.09 million The number of passengers handled by the Transportation Security Administration on Sunday , the most ever travelers in a single day. It broke the previous record — set on July 7 — by about 74,000. RADAR SWEEP WICKED MOMENTS   —  ‘Wicked’ has become a sensation at the box office, already making hundreds of millions of dollars. And as young people in particular flock to theaters across the country to see the film, many of them have been openly flaunting their phone use in the theater, documenting their outfits and their reactions to the movie. It’s sparked conversation and complaints about how to behave at the theater — and where theaters themselves fit into this behavior. Since the pandemic, theaters have brought incentives to the movie experience: custom popcorn buckets, the 4DX experience and elaborate marketing campaigns. In turn, this has increased how much people post their excursions to big budget box office successes. For Vox, Kyndall Cunningham answers why documenting one’s experience at the movies has become a phenomenon.   A message from Instagram: Instagram Teen Accounts: automatic protections for teens Parents want safer online experiences for their teens. That's why Instagram is introducing Teen Accounts, with automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. A key factor: Only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16. Learn more.   Parting Image On this date in 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the main address and broke ground in Washington for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. | AP Samantha Latson contributed reporting.   Don't just read headline s—guide your organization's next move. POLITICO Pro's comprehensive Data Analysis tracks power shifts in Congress, ballot measures, and committee turnovers, giving you the deep context behind every policy decision. Learn more about what POLITICO Pro can do for you .       Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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