It’s simple to relate to a father striving for the best outcomes for his son.
However, it’s more challenging to understand a president who blatantly ignores the judicial process through overt nepotism.
By offering clemency to his son, Joe Biden has urged the American public to grasp the reasoning behind a father’s and a president’s remarkable choice.
Biden has become a vulnerable target by allowing personal agendas to overshadow his closing moments in the White House, giving his political adversaries an unopposed opportunity after his party has faced considerable adversity.
While he may be aged, he certainly isn’t naive. He braced for inevitable backlash.
This doesn’t imply we should continue to strike when he’s flat on the ground.
Very few will extend sympathy towards Hunter Biden. His privileged existence has been marred by substance abuse and infidelity, along with the lasting disgrace of being the first child of a sitting U.S. president to face a federal conviction.
Nevertheless, I wager that we will probably show more compassion for his father when all the anger has subsided.
This is a man who once made a train journey from D.C. to Wilmington, Delaware, just before his daughter Ashley’s 8th birthday, to blow out candles on her cake at the station before hurrying back to the Capitol mere minutes later.
Ashley Biden recounts this story in honor of her father, providing a glimpse into both his struggles and his values as a devoted family man and a public servant. Despite his profound love for his children, he has consistently prioritized his nation above all else.
When a horrific car accident claimed the lives of his first spouse, Neilia, and their infant daughter, Naomi, just six weeks following his Senate election in 1972, Biden was sworn in while at the bedside of his injured sons, Hunter and Beau.
His initial years in the Senate were defined by his dedication to commuting back home to Delaware, to be a nurturing single father for his grieving sons. He continually returned to the Senate, motivated by a desire to effect positive change.
The passing of Beau Biden from brain cancer in 2015 deeply affected him and subsequently inspired his future presidential campaigns.
Regardless of political views, it has been tough to observe the striking cognitive decline of an individual from the peak of national leadership, influenced by the self-serving motives of his own party and the ambitions of his rivals.
Biden’s time in Washington has come to a close. He will occupy his remaining weeks as a lame-duck president, resigned to seeing Donald Trump dismantle his legacy piece by piece.
He might have asked Trump about the possibility of pardoning Hunter. Trump might have even been inclined to do so. The president-elect displayed an unusually mild response to Biden’s announcement on Sunday, likely appreciating that his long-time adversary has facilitated his own path to grant clemency to those involved in the January 6 incidents.
Ultimately, however, Biden couldn’t take that chance. Despite his affection for this country and the joy he derived from being president, his family is now his sole priority. He will board that train to Delaware on January 20, 2025, likely never to return.
Joe Biden has dedicated over 50 years to public service in this nation and certainly left a mess in his wake… from Afghanistan to the border to the economy.
Perhaps it all, finally, came down to family for him… a family mired in multiple allegations of criminality, sleaze, and self-enrichment for sure.
But family nonetheless… and Biden won’t even remember his own name in a year or two much less his legacy.
But his son will be free… and for Joe, that’s probably the legacy he truly cares about.
