This is an embarrassing headline: "How Biden Changed His Mind on Pardoning Hunter: ‘Time to End All of This’/The threat of a retribution-focused Trump administration and his son’s looming sentencings prompted the president to abandon a promise not to get involved in Hunter Biden’s legal problems."
They — the authors are Katie Rogers and Glenn Thrush — cannot know the interior of the President's mind. He may have changed what he was saying about his thoughts, but I presume that he was lying all along, for political purposes, when he said he wouldn't pardon Hunter, and I presume that he always intended to pardon him.
The phrase "How Biden Changed His Mind" is misdirection — sleight of hand. If we fall for it, we unwitting form a belief that Biden did change his mind. He and his supporters weren't lying to us throughout the campaign season. He was weighing all the factors and the factors changed after the election. He painfully reweighed and his consistent and honorable decision-making process yielded a new result. Let Rogers and Rush detail the factors and burnish our respect for the venerable statesman.
No, no, absolutely not. Now, and only now, am I reading past the headline. So let's see:
A dark sky had fallen over Nantucket, Mass., on Saturday evening when President Biden left church alongside his family after his final Thanksgiving as president.
It was a dark and stormy night. We begin with a weather report.
Inside a borrowed vacation compound earlier in the week, with its views of the Nantucket Harbor, Mr. Biden had met with his wife, Jill Biden, and his son Hunter Biden to discuss a decision that had tormented him for months....
Who, if anyone, is the source of this knowledge of Biden's months-long mental torment?
Support for pardoning Hunter Biden had been building for months within the family...
Who? Jill? Hunter? Who's talking to the NYT? How is building support observed? Was this support in the mind of Jill? Was it voiced to the President?
... but external forces had more recently weighed on Mr. Biden, who watched warily as President-elect Donald J. Trump picked loyalists for his administration who promised to bring political and legal retribution to Mr. Trump’s enemies.
Biden also "watched" as Trump got elected, but that's not mentioned. It's not politically convenient to characterize Biden as waiting to see if his party might win, lying about the pardon in an effort to produce that win, and needing a new plan when the party lost. It needs to be about Trump's bad behavior, and son of a bitch, it was!... in this dark-and-stormy-night tale the NYT is telling.
Mr. Biden had even invited Mr. Trump to the White House, listening without responding as the president-elect aired familiar grievances about the Justice Department — then surprised his host by sympathizing with the Biden family’s own troubles with the department, according to three people briefed on the conversation.
So Trump was sympathetic, and it's here, for the first time in the article, that we see a reference to sources. It's harder to portray Trump as a vengeful narcissist when 3 sources say he sympathized with Biden. It was sympathy, we're told, in the context of Trump's complaining that Biden's administration was using criminal prosecution against Trump. Maybe that inspired Biden to see how a pardon of Hunter could be portrayed not as a political favor to Hunter but as an end to political disfavor. It sounds crazy, but we're looking for "How Biden Changed His Mind."
But the article doesn't pursue that, perhaps because it had no evidence that the meeting with Trump jogged Biden's thoughts on the subject. Or do you think the fact that Biden was smiling widely is circumstantial evidence that a wonderful new idea had arisen?
The next thing in the article is this:
But it was Hunter Biden’s looming sentencings on federal gun and tax charges, scheduled for later this month, that gave Mr. Biden the final push....
The final push. So we were supposed to see the Trump meeting as a push? This is a long article, and it purports to tell us "How Biden Changed His Mind," but there was no elaboration of "how" in that bit about the meeting with Trump. Now, I'm wondering if Trump cleverly played Biden somehow? The Times had 3 sources about the conversation and we got one unenlightening sentence.
But there is much more to the article after that introduction. We're told the NYT spoke with "a half dozen people close to the president and his family," but not told who they are or anything about how they could have access to Biden's mind and why they should be trusted to tell the truth.
When the president returned to Washington late Saturday evening, he convened a call with several senior aides to tell them about his decision. “Time to end all of this,” Mr. Biden said, according to a person briefed on the call....
That's says nothing about how or when Biden decided to pardon Hunter, only about the timing of the action.
Mr. Biden’s decision has tarnished a storied public legacy that began more than 50 years ago....
Here's a good place for elision.
Hunter Biden’s decision to plead guilty on the tax charges — after a weeklong gun trial in Delaware in June that rehashed the family’s darkest days — had further embittered Mr. Biden.... [who] began to realize there might not be any way out beyond issuing a pardon. It appears that there was never serious consideration of anything short of a full pardon, such as a commutation of his sentence, they said.
Was there any serious consideration of restricting the full pardon to the gun and tax charges? The article doesn't mention the sweep of the pardon Biden gave, covering every possible federal crime in a 10-year period, such as the oft-alleged corrupt dealings with Ukraine and China!
For his part, Hunter Biden was hardly shy about telling the people around him that he wanted — needed — a pardon, although it is unclear how often he had discussed the matter directly with his father before this past week....
You've got sources. What did he say? Did he threaten to do drugs again and yell about how it would all be dad's fault? Did he say he's writing a memoir that will destroy Joe's reputation forever? Did he threaten to offer his testimony to Trump officials about Joe's involvement in corrupt dealings with Ukraine and China? You're inviting your readers to visualize this scene. That's what I'm seeing.
And here's a hint that the corrupt dealings were part of the discussion:
While both father and son expressed anger over the yearslong effort by Republicans to link Hunter Biden’s questionable foreign business consulting to the president — the unproven “Biden crime family” narrative — they were almost equally contemptuous of the prosecutors who aggressively pursued both cases....
The door was cracked open for half a sentence, then quickly shut.
The statement that followed from Mr. Biden on Sunday offered a window into the mind-set of an aggrieved president who, in the end, could not separate his duty as a father from his half century of principled promises as a politician....
The most comforting possible narrative is chosen! That's the answer to how — how Biden "changed" his mind. He's just too devoted a father — to his duty as a father. Surely, you won't subtract very much from the value of his half century of principled promises as a politician!
I've read the whole thing now, and the NYT hasn't rebutted my presumption that Biden was lying all along, for political purposes, when he said he wouldn't pardon Hunter. And I need to know much more about the 10-year sweep of the pardon, covering all federal crimes, and how that connects to Joe Biden's own possible corruption. Don't just label that "unproven." Investigate it!
ADDED: I just listened to this morning's episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, and it is much better. The guest is the NYT reporter Peter Baker. Excerpts:
I think obviously the only thing that's changed between June... and December when he gives this pardon, is the election. And you can look at it a couple of different ways. You could look at it in the way of him not being honest in the summer. That he really was in fact considering this, but didn't want to say before an election because it would be politically damaging. And only after the election does he admit that in fact he is going to use his extraordinary power for his son. Or — and this may be an and/or — you can also look at it as waking up to the reality of a Trump-run Justice Department in which this new president is promising retribution and specifically to go after Hunter Biden and a president who's on the way out thinking, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm not only going to pardon him for this tax and gun charges. I'm going to protect him from the next guy who's making very clear he's going to use the FBI for retribution....
[In his statement announcing the pardon, Biden] talks about the current prosecutions that his son has faced being unfair and selective. He doesn't say the other part... which is that he is guarding against politicization of the Justice Department by his successor. Right? He could have framed it that way, but he didn't. But the net effect of what he did by making it a 10-year sweeping pardon for any and everything that his son might have done does have that effect. And it does tell you what was probably going through his mind when he decided to issue the pardon.
What Peter Baker says was "probably going through his mind" is what I was saying Rogers and Thrush left out of their "How Biden Changed His Mind" article.
Posts
152 comments:
They’re not writing to convince you, Ann. They’re writing to provide water cooler talking points so the anti-Trumpers can show their faces in the office.
"he always intended to pardon"
Objection, your honor: Assumes facts not in evidence. Does this statement not enter into Joe Biden's mind? How did you get there, Ann, when nobody else can do that?
Maybe Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had a secret agreement whereby he'd step down if she agreed to pardon both Joe Biden, his brother, and Hunter. In that case, then Joe Biden could say honestly that he had no intention to pardon Hunter.
What the NY Times is doing is providing cover for corruption because they themselves are corrupt. They do this in a variety of ways, including lying to Americans. So when you are dealing with a dishonest narrator, you cannot ever know what is true.
My suggestion is to cancel your subscription to the NY Times so that you aren't funding this.
Dirty deads done dirt cheap. Well fisked Professor, well fisked.
So much bullshit from the "all the news that's fit to print". I'm sure "Democracy dies in the darkness" has a similar take.
“ Mr. Biden’s decision has tarnished a storied public legacy that began more than 50 years ago....”
Supposedly James Buchanan is the worst President since he didn’t stop the Civil War. Yeah, he was bad but I doubt anyone could’ve stopped it. The South was spoiling for a fight as its whole way of life was at stake.
I submit that Joe Biden is the worst President. Let’s look at the facts:
1. Unleashed inflation; an unforced error.
2. Bribed with untold millions to do favors for foreigners.
3. War in Ukraine.
4. Attack and then war on Israel.
5. Illegal alien invasion.
6. Sex trafficking of minors.
7. Drug distribution and deaths.
8. Lawfare on political opponents.
9. He didn’t make student loans dischargable in BK so he then worked an illegal scheme to “forgive” student loans; all while blowing off SCOTUS.
10. The trillion dollar Green giveaway.
Objectively, Joe Biden is our worst President.
"The majority of the tasks that this century’s typical ruler believes he is obliged to assume are nothing more than abuses of power." - Don Colacho
He knows that Trump, and I think also a significant portion of the new GOP, realizes the "it was just business" attitude about Hillary's corruption (aided in part by Trump's personal contact with the Clintons) was a strategic mistaken that gained nothing in terms of good will. Biden's support doesn't have the depth of either Hillary or Obama. Nate Silver is a pretty good weathervane, and Biden knows he is a convenient target to blame for Harris's loss. His motley gang of grifters don't have the smarts the Clintons and Obamas do, and were also sloppy because they thought Joe was going to be done with politics after his VP stint.
I knew a guy (in his late twenties) who got arrested for DUI. His father bailed him out, paid for his lawyer, let him stay at home, etc.
On the second DUI the father did nothing calling it "tough love." But he was a tradesman, not anyone so important as the President of the United States of America.
Tribalists and state propaganda outlets spew propaganda. Review the coverage of Republican vs. Democrat inaugurations and foreign policy or military events. It's always the same spin. They say "give them the benefit of the doubt" vs. "it was criminal and we can't take the risk." Etc.
It's too bad that stuck-in-the-mud Republicans never notice or react in a way that's effective. Boiled frogs they are.
Leftist movements die when a significant percentage of the team decides enough is enough and tells the radicals to shut up, or turns on the radicals. The center left then becomes the new right. See Elon, Tulsi, Jordan Peterson, Bari Weiss, Andy Ngo, Matt Taibbi, plus the ideologically constipated Joe Manchin, Krysten Sinema, and Bill Maher.
The only "storied public legacy" Joe Biden has is conducting a high-tech lynching, hanging out with Ku Klux Klansmen in the Senate, and plagarizing Neil Kinnock to try to fake Americans into voting for him.
He's a fucking scumbag criminal who molested his own daughter and we should all remember that is his legacy.
Immunity from all crimes indicted or not was what queered the original plea deal. Biden just reinstated it.
Dark weather is called the pathetic fallacy, in lit crit.
The retribution of the Trump administration hasn’t even started yet. Talk about the paper of record putting the cart before the horse…
If you’re one of the few holdouts who still believes they aren’t guilty of each and every thing they labeled as a right wing conspiracy I invite you to consider the many many stories you are seeing just like this one that has the goals of keeping their sorry asses out of prison and their phoney baloney jobs intact. It is evidence of their guilt. Do not be an enabler…
Pravda speaks truth comrade Althouse. Why you being so difficult. Perhaps trip to gulag is in order.
rehajm said...
“The retribution of the Trump administration hasn’t even started yet. Talk about the paper of record putting the cart before the horse…”
What does the Babylon Bee have to do with this?
They always have to make myths that depict skeevy lying democrats "struggling with a moral quandary" before coming to the decision that we all expected and predicted months ago. It's part of their pathological need to lie about everything. Biden's pardon, a document he swore he wouldn't create, started with the phrase, "Throughout my long career I have operated under the principle that I tell the truth to American people," which is pretty brazen writing for the Gen Xer that wrote it for Joe.
I forgot about the high tech lynching of Clarence Thomas. I guess I have to thank Joe for causing me to switch parties.
Biden was following the classical Kabunga joke, is a better account. Of course I can't read Biden's mind but it's probably better than the sympathy of Nature to his dilemma:
Three missionaries are captured by an aborigine tribe fed up with their missionary stuff, and told they have a choice: kabunga or death.
They know what death is but not kabunga. The first missionary chooses kabunga. The chief shouts "kabunga" and a dozen tribesmen run up and have their way with the missionary.
The second missionary knows what kabunga is but doesn't want death. He chooses kabunga, the chief shouts "kabunga," and a dozen tribesmen run up and have their way with him, and it lasts an hour.
The third missionary has had enough of kabunga and chooses death. "Death," shouts the chief. "But first, kabunga!"
I offer this to the NYT as the explanation of Biden.
Gotta love that “ Mr. Biden’s decision has tarnished a storied public legacy that began more than 50 years ago....” when said "legacy" started with him being reprimanded in law school for plagiarism before graduating bottom in huis class, immediately inventing the story he was in the "top 10%" of said class, lying about the accident that killed his wife and child to get elected to the Senate as a sympathy figure, dragging Hunter still on a stretcher from that accident as a prop to his swearing in to the Senate, again plagiarizing material from other politicians in his run for the presidency in 1988, quitting that race after being confronted about all his lies by Connie Chung on live TV. And that was just the first decade or so of his storied career. Some "start."
"Objection, your honor: Assumes facts not in evidence."
You must have missed the day the Evidence class covered presumptions.
Please review the topic and repost.
The judge started pulling that thread when she noticed the immunity applied to future crimes for which charges might be anticipated, and after she asked the DOJ to tell her about other times the Justice Department had offered that kind of plea deal left lawyers from our "Justice" department stammering and unable to come up with a single example of such an extraordinary provision.
"...then surprised his host by sympathizing with the Biden family’s own troubles with the department..."
"Yeah, tell me about it, Joe."
Hilarious post.
"How Biden Changed His Mind on Pardoning Hunter:..."
Let me correct the NY Times header: "How the NY Times changed The Narrative".
Or at least has tried to in an embarrassingly sophomoric fashion.
They write this as if they believe that the bulk of the nation, indeed the world, thought Joe Biden would do anything to allow an investigation of he and his son's corruption to proceed. No one believed anything other than the inevitability of Joe pardoning Hunter. No one listened to the media gushing about how much of a mensch, how much of a man of honor Joe was when he kept saying he'd not pardon his son.
In writing this the Times is performing that much laughed at task of continuing to dig when you're in a deep hole. No one outside of Manhattan, Brooklyn, DC, and a few scattered folk in Berkeley, Madison, and Ann Arbor pay any attention to the Times any longer. They can quit digging. It's...unnecessary and really...embarrassing.
Joe Biden was always kind of scummy. They all knew that for years. They just got caught up in his Not Being Trump for the last few years and forgot for a moment who Joe has always been. You've seen Hunter's antics and photos over the years? That apple does not fall far from that tree.
And the father wasn't serving him the booze and paying his insurance premiums, I bet.
A good ol' fashioned fisking. Outstanding.
And lo! In the morning it was light again.
Oh look! "Doctor" Jill has done a wonderful job with the White House Christmas decorations!
It was a day of giving thanks and a Sunday evening of a “Fuck you, America!”
Not unrelated, since the COVID pandemic hysteria became one of the psy-ops run by the DNC/FBI/CIA cartel to rig the 2020 election and place Biden in office: Lost in the pardon news. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic issued its report on government conduct yesterday. Among its findings: School closings were unjustified by science, the Wuhan lab was the source of the virus, Fauci subsidized the Wuhan COVID development through a group called EcoHealth Alliance. The shutdowns caused 160,000 business closures, 60% of which never re-opened.
It’s all about “family”, friends. Whether it’s the Mafia or a bunch of greedy, thieving, criminal inbreds from Delaware.
Did the NYT actually publish "Biden crime family"? Hahaha! An internet talking point is now an official term. Anyone who searches on it can now see it verified by the NYT as a legitimate phrase.
Dave didn’t even get to the abandonment of Afghanistan or loss of 3 US embassies. The US is more isolated today.
I think most Americans would understand Biden pardoning his son over the gun and even the tax charges.
But hindering full investigation of the corrupt dealings with Ukraine and China, and making sure Hunter, at least, will not be convicted of these far more serious crimes is … criminal. These aren’t “personal drug-fueled” instances: they point to international corruption and dangerous meddling in our nation’s foreign policy.
They are, as David French and others at the Times clearly know but pedal hard to lie about, by ignoring, crimes against a nation. At least Hunter can’t take the Fifth now if called upon to testify about Burisma and “the big guy.” Unless Biden pardons all other parties with knowledge of the arrangements, including Jill, his brother, Hunter’s “business associates,” the President’s daughter, other relatives, perhaps Kamala Harris, Hillary, Obama, etc., and Biden himself (if possible.)
That’s the real scandal. It’s the only one we should be talking about, rather than following the media narrative of a daddy’s love.
Likewise, you could change out mind and insert messaging.
A lot of people have knowledge and proof of Biden’s criminality and corruption. This piece was of shit will probably pardon hundreds of people in the next several weeks, foremost himself.
The silver lining - Hunter can no longer hide behind the fifth amendment.
Woodrow Wilson is still the worst. Racist, hated the Constitution, hated free speech, sucked us into a European war over nothing. Killed 117,000 Americans for no damn reason. Horrible socialist who "nationalized" the telegraph, telephone and railroad industries. Imposed the income tax on the USA. Supported mandatory sterilization. Passed the Espionage Act to arrest Americans for speaking out against him. Arrested his political opponents. Joe Biden is bad -- the worst president of my lifetime -- but if we avoid WW3 over the next two months, Wilson's record as King Shit remains.
Unfortunately all the years of using crack have left him rather forgetful, especially under oath, if you know what I mean.
This caught my eye: "Inside a borrowed vacation compound...." "Borrowed" from whom? If Clarence Thomas had stayed at a "borrowed" vacation compound, the NYT would try to create a scandal.
Was there any serious consideration of restricting the full pardon to the gun and tax charges?
the pardon had NOTHING to do with those charges..
the pardon was about the BRIBERY charges against JOE BIDEN
not the same!
did your guy bring in TENS OF MILLIONS of dollars in bribes for the family business?
did your guy have PROOF of those bribes, that he threatened to reveal in court?
Those two are the easiest marks in the world
as Mike said.. Hunter will have "no recollection" of anything
Some people like the stories in the New York Times.
It's David Rubenstein's house. He's head of Carlyle Group, technically private equity but really more like the financial equivalent of an HGTV Tarek and Christina that flip stuff quickly. Also they use their ownership status for leftie social engineering when they get the chance...
The NYT has been reading Trump's mind for years.
I assume Joe's would be a much easier read.
This pardon stuff is reminding me of Richard Allan Davis who raped and killed a little girl. At sentencing, he flipped off the judge. How could he! Huge uproar. Well that does it! He’s not repentant at all! The man had raped and killed a little girl for God’s sake. Flipping off the judge was the least of his transgressions.
So with Joe Biden. I’m not going to rehash everything he’s done. Dave Begley has a partial list. I’d add the cash he sent to Iran and Hamas. But liberals are mad because an abject liar lied to them? This is what upsets them?
Biden is being given more credit for cognitive processing than he has shown in quite some time.
Crack is wack, but at least the criminal hacks won’t be back.
This was never about Hunter. The pardon was Joe protecting Joe, since Joe knew all about (aided, abetted, and profited from) Hunter's bribe-taking. That is how we Know the 'won't pardon' line was a lie all along.
I wonder how much of a premium Elon Musk would have to pay in order to purchase the Times from Slim and then put someone like Matt Taibbi in charge. It would be great to have the Times return to a semblance of what it was in say the 1950s even though it no doubt had too much sympathy for communism even then. Someone like Taibbi, given that he hire and fire reporters could go along ways towards establishing a paper that would approach being accurate in its reporting. I was going to say that if the editorial page wants to remain bat shit crazy let it, but no you have to get rid of those people also. It's a damned shame this institution has been so corrupted. It call's to mind Robert Conquest's assertion that which is not overtly right wing becomes left wing over time. How about a history of the Times entitled "Flying on one Wing."
I kept waiting for the serving of apple pie, but it never showed up. What is a family Thanksgiving without apple pie?
Investigate it? LOL. The MSM, including the NYT's, deliberately lied about Hunter laptop in 2016, labeling it "Russian Disinformation" when they knew from sources inside the FBI/DoJ that the laptop existed and an investigation was started.
IMO, "the Plan" was for Kamala to pardon Hunter after she took office. No doubt part of the deal that got Biden to step down and endorse her. Trump surviving an assassination attempt and winning the election, made that "plan" invalid.
If Biden follows his past behavior, he will be trashing Trump's pardon's in Jan 2021 as "destroying the rule of law" and "authoritarian". Don't expect him to be ashamed of the double standard. He has none.
What's Biden doing in Nantucket over Thanksgiving weekend - checking in with his boss Obama? Begging to issue a presidential pardon to his cokehead bagman so for all known and unknown Biden Crime Family offenses? Given Biden's long history of flagrant lies and self-serving deceptions, it should come to no one's surprise that this pardon was drafted since Hunter's guilty pleas on his two minor charges. Hunter knows all the crimes of Joe Biden, including the treasonous bits.
One difference between those on the Right, like me, and those on the Left is I have no desire to "destroy the other side". I don't hate Leftists. I don't really care about Joe Biden, I despise him, and want him to have zero power, but let him and corrupt family leave the white house in peace.
In fact, trump should not only issue a pardon for himself prior to Jan 21, 2025, but he should do the same for Joe Biden. It won't keep the MSM/Left from attacking him but decent people will see that Trump is being just and fair.
The current NYT market cap is around $9 billion, about double what it was 5 years ago. TDS has been good for them.
Rumors are that Biden is also considering pardoning Jill Biden. Of course. I'm sure the remainder of his family members are on the list as well.
But also being considered for pardons are, Alejandro Mayorkas, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, and Rod Rosenstein. Now some of those names we haven't heard in a while. Why would Biden be issuing those people blanket pardons?
The spin by the media on the pardon for Hunter is pretty amazing to watch. And I say that after watching their spinning over the past few decades and especially the past 9 years.
"“ Mr. Biden’s decision has tarnished a storied public legacy that began more than 50 years ago....”"
Even that statement is a lie if it is meant to present Biden in a positive light. Go back and review the articles from the media after Biden's failed Presidential run in the 1980s. Next, watch the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Biden was a lying grifting bully even back then and he has only gotten worse over the past 60 years.
"Don't just label that 'unproven.' Investigate it!"
The NYT only does that when a Republican is the topic. Demmies and their claims of principled behavior are taken at face value always, no matter how absurd that claim is.
Why should a Biden pay taxes that pay Joe’s salary, his only source of legitimate income throughout his career, a source so insufficient he had to do side hustles to survive, scrounging for a few paltry millions of dollar where he could?
Consider the scope of Hunter's pardon. Even if evidence emerges that he sold state secrets to China, engaged in outright treason, the pardon covers that. And there is every reason to expect that Joe will pardon himself and his brother similarly before leaving office. Knowing that that is in the bag for the last 6 months, can you imagine how much the Biden Crime family has been raking in?
Our children were told we would bail them out of jail once and only once. If they didn't learn any lessons from a night in jail, then there wasn't much else we could do. It meant they had ignored our lessons when growing up. We had to bail out our youngest one time. Oh howdy! Did he ever straighten up quick. He immediately started walking the "straight and narrow", and soon after got married. Since then he and his wife have provided us with 6 beautiful grandchildren and are doing very well in life.
Wild to pardon people who have not been charged with anything at this point. That alone would damage their reputation, I would think. But, we are living in the crazy times.
"10-year sweep "
Ann, it's ELEVEN years........why is that?
Lincoln was the worst president. He repudiated and perverted the American Revolution, committing myriad sins and crimes in the process. I would travel back in time to kill baby Abie
Eric Abbenante
@EricAbbenante
Even Jon Stewart admits that Hunter's pardon stretching back 11 years is quite fishy:
Jon Stewart: "Faith in the rule of law: Finally, Democrats have a moral perch for which they can judge without shame hypocrisy or nuance."
Jessica Dean: "Breaking news, President Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter Biden"
Jon Stewart: "11 years is a very specific and not rounded amount of time."
The hypocrisy, it goes to 11.
Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
Jon Stewart suddenly cares about decades of clear Biden family foreign influence peddling now, as opposed to people who have been reporting on it for years.
Exactly like his mental decline. They absolutely covered for it until they couldn't anymore. The corruption isn't with Joe Biden it's with people like
Jon Stewart.
Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
The corruption was right out in the open for everyone to see and instead of reporting on it people like Jon Stewart and Philip Bump just shrugged their shoulders and went "I don't know. I don't know what any of this could mean these text messages are like Egyptian hieroglyphics"
Fuck you. Where is the apology?
3:46 AM · Dec 3, 2024
Joe just gave Hunter a truth serum. Can't plead the Fifth, but if he is caught in a lie, it's still perjury. 😬 Get your popcorn ready. 🍿 I suspect Hunter will probably OD before he can do much damage. Just like Epstein "committed suicide."
A dark sky had fallen over Nantucket, Massachusetts. As Biden left the church, the threats of Trump's retribution were coming out of the fields with torches. Biden ran back inside crying, "Time to end all this." He pointed at a nearby priest. "You, Fat! I claim sanctuary! Come on, man!" And the thunder rolled.
CFS - we told our kids we would come visit them and that’s it. We never had to.
It's cute watching the NY Times continuing to portray Joe Biden as a virtuous, principle-driven leader struggling mightily with this dilemma and finally succumbing to a father's natural and (they hope) understandable love for his wayward son (whose pardoned period of time also happens to include possible criminal culpability for Joe too). Apparently, the NY Times archives were closed so the writers were unable to see the 50 years or so of lying by Joe to consider any other possibility for his action.
And nice job on the "dark and stormy night" opening. They might try entering the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
None of us are surprised Crook Joe pardoned his bag-man. All the way back to 2014 - when Joe was VP and the Ukraine-Barisma - big money for Biden family secret schemes began. Our tax dollars washed clean so Hunter could live large.
Progressives hive-minds who read the NYT - will buy it. No one else.
Meanwhile:
"While Joe Biden @JoeBiden
has lied to the American people and pardoned his son Hunter for ALL CRIMES GOING BACK 10 YEARS, peaceful Americans are STILL being persecuted and sent to trial merely for exercising their 1st Amendment right to protest the stolen 2020 election on January 6th, 2021."
Laura Loomer.
These cracked fairy tales get more ridiculous every day
This:
@MHowellTweets
"There’s a ton to be said on the Hunter pardon, but for now:
The real worrisome part about the undeniable fact that the First Family (not just Hunter!) was so flamboyantly corrupt was that the entirety of the government legal and intelligence apparatus worked overtime to let it go. And they did it for a very long time and turned themselves into pretzels to keep doing it again.
All while doing the exact opposite on contrived and sometimes legitimately insane plots against Trump and those who supported him.
Major systems level damage was done to the integrity of the whole system. So many will want to move on to the next thing but if not addressed, we are in a world of long term trouble.
The Bidens clearly belong in the history books as an asterisked blight, but the story is so much bigger than just them. When they exit it doesn’t just get resolved naturally."
X:
"US intelligence services’ multi-decades curation of Biden family crimes requires major assessment of what programs and resources are compromised. This story is hardly ended with a pardon."
Biden said he decided to run for President because the threat of Trump was too great. Then he decided not to run because the threat of Trump was too great. Now he decided to pardon Hunter because the threat of Trump is too great.
I think Biden made all three decisions because to protect himself from exposure and punishment for his crimes and corruption.
The NYT helped him with the narrative every time.
I remember that as well. More outrage at a gesture than the horrific crime. An early instance of where their priorities were.
How interesting. A doddering old man who is too far gone to run for another term, and is characterized by the DOJ as 'too senile to prosecute' for known crimes, crimes replete with evidence, is nevertheless presented here as a wise old man, pondering heavily during a sentimental family holiday and weighing complex, emotionally-vested family problems that are intermixed with national policy issues, and coming to a grave and consequential change of mind. They should make a movie. Or is this the movie?
NYT writers--more novelists than reporters--go into crazy town once again. It's their favorite place.
It’s not even anonymous first person sources anymore, its…
“ according to three people briefed on the conversation.”
So they weren’t there, but someone “briefed them” on the conversation. It’s a bunch of Alexander Vindmans? I wasn’t on the call but I was “briefed” on it.
So KJP or whoever says “go tell the NYT this is why…”
Truth is dead.
“We’ve always been at war with EastAsia Winston” said three people briefed on the matter.
Insanity: keep doing the same things expecting a different result.
Think like a politician: when asked something inconvenient you either deny it or refuse to comment. React like Joe Biden: when asked something you don't want to answer, you huffily and indignantly blow off the questioner. Act like someone senile: just say anything and forget you said it. Kick those cans down the road and forget about them.
Biden was always going to pardon his son or arrange for his son to be pardoned. "Intent," though, is a tricky concept. Sometimes it's so obviously there that there's no point in arguing about whether it's there or not.
I lived in or around Washington, DC, for over fifty years, before retiring to the countryside, so my cynicism is dialed up waaayyy past 11. Consequently it never once crossed my mind that Biden meant it about not pardoning Hunter. It was just another Democrat campaign promise, forgotten moments after being made. As far as I’m concerned the politicians (of both parties) in Washington who pretend that they believed him, plus the Democrat’s Praetorian Guard of writers at the New York Times and Washington Post, abetted by the talking heads on TV news, are merely going through a well-rehearsed Kabuki dance.
The people may be reacting in a new and unexpected way (meaning differently from the role assigned to them in the Kabuki performance). We shall see.
Ten years and 11 months. I believe the start date coincides with Hunter’s joining Burisma.
I did not read the comments. Just wanted to say that this is why we read Althouse.
Thanks for the fisking. The best of Althouse.
A father's love, changed his mind, Trump bad--the prog redirect doesn't work. And it's BS anyway--as the article itself says, Trump himself sounded conciliatory.
By the way, NYT, if the Bidens are not a "crime family," why the shell companies, multiple accounts, and money shoveled to grandchildren? What did Hunter have to sell besides his father's name and influence?
It doesn't take having lived in DC to have known he was always going to pardon Hunter. He would have done so even if Kamala would have won. Joe's influence peddling crimes are too great to have risked it.
I will be gobsmacked if he doesn't pardon the whole family, including himself. He'll blame it on Trump and the dem toadies will shake their heads in agreement.
@Saint Croix, Wilson was a terrible human being, and running for re-election on the slogan “He kept us out of war” while behind the scenes doing everything he could to get us into World War I, is thoroughly Bidenesque. But his presidency, while terrible, was not as bad as Carter’s or Biden’s. I make the bottom five as Biden, Buchanan, Carter, Wilson, and LBJ. And I’ve lived through three of them.
Why the collective corrupt left are losing their minds over Mr Patel.
"It's too bad that stuck-in-the-mud Republicans never notice or react in a way that's effective. Boiled frogs they are."
Why would GOPe-ers go after their democratical allies?
Actually, Althouse fisking the NYT is the best Althouse.
Nothing about the case changed between the time he said he definitely wouldn't and the day he did.
The internet has killed off so much that it's hard to believe that that kind of "colorful" schlocky writing is still around at the Times. Do people still have the patience to wade through all of that speculative pseudo-narrative to get whatever factual nugget may lie buried beneath it? Maybe Times readers aren't as plugged in to the endless flow of information and opinion as one might think. They are under an enchantment and resist anything that breaks the spell. Having the patience to read long-form articles may be a plus, but not when it affects one's ability to tell what's bullshit.
I'm almost peeing myself at the notion that Joe is the brains of the operation and Hunter was just the "bagman." Give me a break. Joe has tapioca pudding for brains. The whole family are just stupid pawns.
Is there anyone who honestly believes that he would NOT have pardoned Hunter if Harris won? If so, I have a bridge to sell you....
What utter bullshit! Here's my watered down comment to NYT that will likely go unpublished:
"The existence of Donald Trump does not provide carte blanche for all questionable Democrat behavior. He had no potential influence over the resolution of Hunter Biden's case.
There are several possible explanations for the pardon the least likely of which are Donald Trump and/or Biden "changing his mind." It is, however, refreshing to see mainstream journalists finally applying some critical thinking to the state of Joe Biden's mind."
Settle down, DD! You run the risk of eating the wrong thing and going for teh Trifecta. 😬
Purple Lips is on Martha's Vineyard. It's more likely that Obama is begging Biden to do everything he can now to prevent exposing their filthy administrations. It's guys like Rubenstein who are really calling the tunes, so amoral crooks like the Bidens, the Obamas, and the Clintons can do the dancing.
To bad Althouse doesn't provide for rating comments . . . you'd have my "upvote!"
Biden had surely told his son that he would be pardoned no later than the first week of September when Hunter pleaded out on the tax evasion case. That was the moment the Bidens decided to waste no more money on trial lawyers.
And, of course, anyone who thinks Joe Biden was at any point telling the truth of his intentions of not pardoning his son is a fool to be ignore from this point forward.
The frenzy over the Biden pardon is a good reminder that the press knows how to make something a scandal and has decided that nothing Trump does is truly deserving of that treatment.
But if they make something Trump does into a scandal, then Republicans would scream at them and that must be avoided above all else because the most important responsibility of journalism is to never be accused of "liberal bias".
Trying and imprisoning criminals is not retribution. It is a constitutional duty
Wow. Bich has truly gone off the deep end. The pro-Trump press?? Really, Bich- that is what you are going to go with? Wow.
"... the unproven “Biden crime family” narrative ..."
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Wait just a New York Times minute there!
"unproven"? What happened to "baseless"?
12/3/24, 11:03 AM
‘Or do you think the fact that Biden was smiling widely is circumstantial evidence that a wonderful new idea had arisen?’
Then he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch had a wonderful awful idea
I'm not fooled by all the fake gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. All of you Trump supporters are actually super duper happy that president Joseph Biden pardoned his son Hunter for all crimes and misdemeanors here on 24 not uncovered or investigated yada yada yada.
This all but guarantees that the J6 insurrectionist traders will be granted unmitigated pardons for all crimes foreign and domestic.
Well, he's flown off to Africa, so nobody can ask him, or confront him on it.
Oh! BTW! Martial Law in South Korea! Squirrel!
I think you are mostly right, Howard- I wrote yesterday that I was happy to see Biden do it and that wasn't a lie or exaggeration. However, it wasn't because it makes the pardoning of the January 6th political prisoners easier or more likely- I am glad Biden did it so that I can watch progressives having to reswallow their vomit while they attempt to defend Biden.
Great fisking, I especially loved the beginning.
"It was a dark and stormy night. We begin with a weather report. "
lol
The Biden pardon — politically unwise for rhetorical precedents it may set for Trump — is smart in terms of timing. If Biden waited until leaving Jan. 20, reaction would have taken focus from Trump early outrages.Now the band-aid’s now been ripped off. The pardon will be forgotten by then.
This is hardly going to be the last pardon Biden issues before January 19.
It would be interesting to know the truth. The Hunter Biden laptop story deeply embarrassed the national security officials and media figures who fronted the Russia disinformation theory. I suspect they insisted on Joe not preventing Hunter from going to jail as their condition for supporting Joe’s renomination bid. Joe didn’t get the nomination, so there was a failure of consideration.
I do think there is a good argument for leniency on the gun charge. When Hunter found out Haley had tossed his gun in a random dumpster, he did the responsible thing, perhaps the only responsible thing he did during that period of his life, making sure the police were alerted which led to the gun being recovered. We should want to encourage people to come forward in situations like that, without fear of prosecution.
“Now, I'm wondering if Trump cleverly played Biden somehow?”
Are you thinking Donald tricked Joe into pardoning his son Hunter? Did Donald express sympathy in his meeting with Joe to create the impression he might pardon Hunter himself, and cause Joe to issue his pardon to preempt Trump from looking magnanimous. That would rebut your “Joe was lying” presumption.
NYT frames a suitable handmade tale to sell how Biden evolved from rhetorical politicking to take affirmative action through selection.
"Do people still have the patience to wade through all of that speculative pseudo-narrative to get whatever factual nugget may lie buried beneath it?"
Nobody reads the Times to learn the facts. They read it to obtain the narrative.
Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.
"...the reality of a Trump-run Justice Department in which this new president is promising retribution and specifically to go after Hunter Biden..."
It's really obnoxious that so many Democrats are pushing this narrative that Biden had to do it because of Trump. (And it's even worse that so many people are falling for this.)
LOL
Once again, we see what happens to the "quailty" of The LLR-democraticals posts when the talking points have not yet been distributed from New Soviet Democratical Politburo Central!
You didn't think this crew of buffoonish Harry Sisson types do their own talking point formulations, do you?!
Shades of Abacus Boy Rich regaling us daily with tales of competence and unparalleled campaign time and money management, polls showing Trump getting crushed across the board(!), and on and on and on!
Good times, good times.
"How did you get there, Ann, when nobody else can do that?"
A lot of people are doing that. It's based on circumstantal evidence. As a father, Biden obviously wanted to pardon his son. And, as a candidate, Biden had a great motive to lie about this.
"It would be interesting to know the truth."
Riiiiiiiight.....
You, like all New Soviet Democraticals, will gleefully accept whatever your party masters shove down your throat.
And you know it....because you have.
Repeatedly and every single time.
But only every single time.
For our New Soviet Democraticals, S Korea is what a coup/insurrection looks like.
That and what the Samantha Powers crew is attempting in Georgia.
"the unproven “Biden crime family” narrative"
Normally they would use "debunked." Maybe they know something!
Also, I learned that DuckDuckGo will pull up all your Blogger comments if you search for "Avatar Althouse." Quote marks will narrow down the results.
Google, owner of Blogger, will only show a few very recent ones.
Curious.
I'm rather pleased with the pardon too. Makes it very straightforward to force his testimony before Congress, as there is no longer a Fifth Amendment self-incrimination consideration, and the precedent has been set by the Biden regime for enthusiastically prosecuting criminal contempt of Congress if he refuses.
The pardon applies not only to known gun and tax crimes, but also to all the other influence peddling and bribery and whatever else he and his corrupt family were up to for the past decade. It will therefore be most illuminating to force him to disclose it all under oath, before Kash Patel empties the FBI's "Ark of the Covenant" vault, and every penny that their web of cutout LLC's and offshore bank accounts ever got from Ukrainian and Chinese sources is dragged into the sunlight.
It’s not at all an embarrassing headline if your mission and purpose are to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party.
AARP: 15 warning signs of dementia
12. Changes in judgment. People with dementia may experience changes in judgment and decision making that can affect everything from their appearance to their financial wellbeing, the Alzheimer’s Association says.
AARP
I don't want retribution. I want accountability.
Think back on how outrageous the FBI's activities were before and after the Crossfire Hurricane operation.
It's a bit hard to believe that the FBI and the IC set themselves up to determine the outcome of a Presidential election and failing in that tried to destroy Trump's administration after he won in 2016.
No, I Bidened. I do want retribution.
In a better world, there might be a justification for forgiveness and an attempt to heal our sick and sorry institutions.
In this world, I'm ready to put the bastards in jail for the rest of their lives. By any means necessary.
Well, Drago, for all you know the party bosses have told me to say that it would be interesting to know the truth. After all, we do have to get to the bottom of who should be purged from the party.
Althouse says she believes Biden’s supporters in the media lavished praise on Biden’s announcement last summer that he wouldn’t pardon his son as exhibiting an intent to influence the 2024 election. I would suggest that they were instead trying to cement Hunter having to go to jail, in retribution for Hunter so badly embarrassing them on the laptop story.
On the tax charges, there is a similarity between Hunter Biden and Paul Manafort’s conviction. I haven’t been able to find out how long Manafort was sentenced on the tax charges, as the reporting only says the sentence was concurrent with the longer sentence he got on other crimes.
The final decision to use the tactic of Presidential Pardon was recently made. The goal of never letting Hunter be in a situation where a prosecutor could threaten prison if Hunter refused to testify against his daddy, was always constant.
G-Pub
Given that the pardon extends back to 1.1.14 I am thinking the conviction pardons are cover for the allegations going back to POTUS's vp days and after
A textbook example of the propagandist's "thinking past the sale" technique.
While I don't have an opinion on whether or not Joe Biden even knew he was signing pardon papers for his son, the reason for the pardon is simple. Facing a potentially very long sentence for his gun crime, Hunter could be convinced to provide testimony against many, many Democrats to obtain leniency.
Opportunity lost.
Robother: "can you imagine how much the Biden Crime family has been raking in?"
Fortunately, the Trump DOJ could do asset forfeiture on the Bidens, no matter how many pardons they have. The court case proceeds against the property: "United States vs $1M," etc. That would be glorious.
JSM
Since most of my serious thoughts on this matter have already been addressed by others, I just want to add that this: "[Biden] in the end, could not separate his duty as a father from his half century of principled promises as a politician..." actually made me laugh out loud. I don't know how the writers could keep a straight face while writing that, but being with the NYT, I'm sure they managed.
It was a dark and stormy night. We begin with a weather report. - hilarious puncturing of the pomposity of the attempt to clothe the Biden in “fine writing”.
Meanwhile in Georgia, Fani Willis is not having a good day. The longest trial in Georgia history, a RICO trial against rapper Young Thug and associates, has ended with all two dozen defendants going home. Not guilty. The attorneys for the DAs office were so unprepared and unprofessional that at times even the Judge was shocked. I suspect all were DEI hires.
Then, to top off her day, Judicial Watch won their case against Fani Willis and her office has five days to produce communications with the WH in regards to the Trump case. Oh, and Tom Fitton's organization was awarded attorney's fees. I suspect Fani is frantically calling the WH asking what to do now, and seeing if she can get on the pardon list. I'm sure she is getting no answer and the voice mail for her contact is "full".
https://www.judicialwatch.org/fani-willis-in-default/?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=press%20release
a good reminder that the press knows how to make something a scandal and has decided that nothing Trump does is truly deserving of that treatment.
Somebody needs to drop you on your head. Again.
"In a better world, there might be a justification for forgiveness and an attempt to heal our sick and sorry institutions.
In this world, I'm ready to put the bastards in jail for the rest of their lives. By any means necessary."
If there are no unpleasant consequences, it will be taken as a signal to resume "business as usual" just as soon as it seems the current tempest has blown over.
I'm not sure specifically what the *something* is, but *something* needs to imposed on least some of those responsible for what's happened such that future government officials/employees for the next 20 generations shake in their boots just thinking about it.
Billion bucks for African flood relief, and Jack shit for American citizens.
Although I practiced law for nearly 50 years, I was never expert in Constitutional Law. So when issues came up about Old Biden's pardon of Not-So-Old Biden, I went to the web, and I found "The Presidential Pardon Power Explained" from Project Democracy. I'd never heard of this Project, but what they published in March of this year seemed focused on refuting expansive claims by Trump about the Pardon Power he had or would have as President, so on the theory of "confession against interest", I thought this was a good place to look for limits to the Biden-Biden Pardon.
According to Project Democracy, a "self-pardon" by a President would place the President above the law, and would therefore be invalid. To me that sounds like a reasonable position (and I think most everyone assumes that a President can't pardon him/her self). The Project goes on to say that also invalid would be "a self-protective pardon (that is, a pardon that has the intent and effect of impeding an investigation into a president or his interests and that would thus amount to a self-pardon." I'm no expert, as I said, but I bet Pres. Trump could find some qualified lawyers who could poke holes in Hunter's "Pardon" in order to get at Joe. And I assume that the purpose of the pardon of Hunter is to prevent that.
Yes. They are the mob.
Poor source to rely on.
For example, they misrepresent the Burdick case they cite. Intentionally most likely.
Burdick determined that a person has a right to refuse a pardon and he cannot be required to provide possibly self-incriminating testimony simply because he was offered a pardon, if he refused to accept it.
Compare that or any other explanation of Burdick with what they wrote and I think you'll see that your source is ... unreliable.
Also, their opinion on a self-pardon is just that, pure opinion. There is no precedent or interpretation by the courts on the issue.
But they present that opinion as fact. As liars often do.
Dave Begley said...
I forgot about the high tech lynching of Clarence Thomas. I guess I have to thank Joe for causing me to switch parties.
12/3/24, 6:24 AM
---
Explains some things.
How little self-respect do you have to have to "cover" politics for the national media? It seems to me that they must have deliberately selected for people with extreme public humiliation fetishes. Can you imagine, day after day, standing up in front of people and eating toad after toad, just slurping them down, claws and warty skin and all, and then flashing a big capped-tooth smile in their botoxed, plastic faces and saying "That was delicious! May I please have another toad, sir?"
It's GOT to be a fetish--who else could tolerate degrading themselves like that day after day after day?
Nobody was embarrassed by the claim Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation. To quote the smarmy Nevada kingpin, "It worked, didn't it?"
Methinks you severely misunderstand the negotiation.
Nice try Left Bank. The times you have challenged New Soviet Democratical policies and talking points can be counted on zero hands.
And zero feet.
But do go ahead and keep pretending you've got some sort of independent streak somewhere buried deep...if it makes you feel better.
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