December 6, 2024
On when President Biden decided to pardon his son...
I have reservations about continuing to feature the Biden pardon story. On the one hand, I’m not sure there’s more to be said. On the other hand, I heard something yesterday that hasn’t gotten the play I think it deserves. On the third hand, I think some politicians expect they can behave poorly because the news cycle will move on in three days, and I don’t love that attitude.
Yesterday on The Julie Mason Show (the absolute best political news program out there — I can’t recommend it enough), I heard a conservative pundit mention an NBC News report that Biden’s plan had always been to publicly deny he’d pardon his son while privately keeping the option open. In what I’d been reading, most people just assumed that’s what happened, but there was no confirmation of it. For me at least, confirmation would add a new dimension to the story because it would put to bed the question of whether Biden was lying the whole time. So I found what I think is the report and am sharing it here.
Maybe I’m putting too much emphasis on this. The nepotistic pardon is the headline. The lie is secondary, and yet it matters. It matters because there has seemed to be some ambiguity about the timing of the decision when there really isn’t. That mystery is solved. I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m not surprised Biden lied. But I don’t have to be surprised to be insulted. I can only imagine how those who believed and supported the president feel.