Commentary: Et Tu, Joe?

Biden’s pardon doesn’t do much to help guard against the notion the courts have been politicized and weaponized

By Darrell Ehrlick for the Daily Montanan

Screenshot from CSPAN coverage of the 2024 State of the Union speech

“Our reasons are so full of good regard
“That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar,
“You should be satisfied.”
— Brutus from “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare

President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter, through a privilege that happened because the American electorate trusted him to do the right thing, even when it was difficult, is a gross corruption of the political process and morally indefensible.

Would that the damage were limited to people in the Biden family’s privileged circles. Would that it were some parting gift from the chief executive as he leaves the White House, a consolation prize for not running for a second-term; like taking an extra embossed notepad or two that says “From the office of the president.”

And would that such a pardon would just be a historical footnote. But Biden’s selfish pardon will reverberate deep into the body politic, and add fuel to a needless fire even in more remote places of the country, like Montana.

The problem with Hunter Biden is on full display as it appears that Daddy Joe has swooped in again to save the poor-little-rich kid who made bad choices. In that respect, Biden and Trump look a little too close to each other for my liking.

But even more important, by pardoning his son, Biden has decimated — and I mean absolutely obliterated — something much more important than he or his son. He has admitted without even pretending to fight that there’s something political, fishy or untrustworthy about the American judicial system. The man who has been telling us all along that we can and should have faith in the venerable institutions of this country, has seemed to call all that into question as he says he cannot trust the justice system even to ensure his own family member who has been rightly convicted will get a fair shake during the second presidency of Trump.

That’s quite an admission, one that Biden didn’t have to speak, but nonetheless is a crippling indictment. There are many of us who believe that regardless of what happens during the next four years, Hunter Biden would have been treated to the punishment he’s got coming, just as many of us believe Donald Trump would have and still should be held accountable for his convictions.

But moments like this will be the new reference points for those looking to undermine the court system and will be an excuse to knock down the institutions that have and should continue to serve us well.

Here in Montana, our leaders have conducted a four-year war on the judiciary from the other two co-equal branches of government in an attempt to discredit and frighten the judges into capitulating to decisions that conform more to political views than case law. Though lawmakers searching for wrongdoing and conspiracies have found none, often being flummoxed by the kind of civics that should have been taught in grade school, they have done a decent job of leaving Treasure State residents with the vague and gnawing notion that something — who knows what? — must be wrong in the courts.

While this exercise in finding solutions where there are no problems has yielded precious little for such an investment of time, the mere creation the committee, even without Democratic participation, is more powerful anything this legislative inquisition has uncovered. In other words, people already had their doubts, but when you have a president who says that he can’t trust the federal judiciary, he seems to be playing right into their hands, even though the federal courts have about as much relevancy to Montana state courts as the U.S. Senate has to the Montana Senate — two totally different bodies.

One of the things that has continued to define the Democrats, including their sickening ability to lose big elections when it appears they might win, is that they’ve resisted transforming government into an apparatus that caters to their friends and bends norms in exchange for sacrificing just a little bit of shame. But, Biden’s move shows that he’s not above the same kind of shenanigans those in the Trump orbit frequently engage in. The idea that there are two sets of rules, one for us common folks and one for those politically connected, should be anathema to Americans. Instead, it appears to be reality.

Predictably, before the news had even fully broken of Biden’s pardon, there was already an incoming wave of what-aboutism?

“What about Trump’s felony convictions?”

“Oh yeah? Well, what about the Hunter Biden laptop?”

Understand, though, these ceaseless arguments aren’t winning any hearts and minds, only corroding the institutions that we must rely upon for everyday, ordinary justice. The same kind of systemic, toxic arguments are happening with our other institutions, not so unlike the beating the public schools are taking or the undermining of the traditional role of journalism. First comes the undermining, then discrediting, and finally, dismantling. When institutions like the court systems, which have and continued to serve us well, fail in the eyes of the politicians, they can more easily be discounted or written off for dead, instead of being defended as the very institutions that make democracy run.

As Trump promises to use the Department of Justice to seek political payback, Biden engages in a raft of lame-duck pardons and maneuvers meant as a checkmate to Trump, a rekindling of a grudge match from two old men who continue to act as if the presidency is an entitlement and institutions are their toys.

I truly hope justice is blind because if I were her, the last thing I’d want to do is watch what’s being done in her name.