Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm sure he would have liked to honor his initial commitment to not pardon, but the selection of Kash Patel was the last straw. With an evil person like that, Joe Biden had no choice.

if Joe Biden wasn't President.

I think we own Joe an apology for giving up on him. Once again, voters not turning out to support a Democrat for President have given us Donald F. Trump once again. It's a damned shame!

persecution. noun. per·​se·​cu·​tion. : punishment or harassment usually of a severe nature on the basis of race, religion, or political opinion in one's country of origin.

Persecution Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › persec...
What does it mean if someone is persecuted?
Meaning of persecuted in English

to treat someone unfairly or cruelly over a long period of time because of their race, religion, or political beliefs, or to annoy someone by refusing to leave them alone: Religious minorities were persecuted and massacred during the ten-year regime.

And Yes I support Joe in this pardon. At least it may stop the incredible waste of time and misuse of taxpayer money that has taken place. I wonder what the total sum of tax dollars that was been squandered on trying to find nothing. Yes he did break some laws but an ordinary citizen would not have been persecuted like this especially since he did everything that is normally required. Rehab, pay the back taxes plus interest and fines.

persecution. noun. per·​se·​cu·​tion. : punishment or harassment usually of a severe nature on the basis of race, religion, or political opinion in one's country of origin.

Persecution Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › persec...
What does it mean if someone is persecuted?
Meaning of persecuted in English

to treat someone unfairly or cruelly over a long period of time because of their race, religion, or political beliefs, or to annoy someone by refusing to leave them alone: Religious minorities were persecuted and massacred during the ten-year regime.

And Yes I support Joe in this pardon. At least it may stop the incredible waste of time and misuse of taxpayer money that has taken place. I wonder what the total sum of tax dollars that was been squandered on trying to find nothing. Yes he did break some laws but an ordinary citizen would not have been persecuted like this especially since he did everything that is normally required. Rehab, pay the back taxes plus interest and fines.

Damn right. I think the top brass, so to speak, treated President Biden absolutely disgracefully. If TPTB had done a better job messaging for 3+ years, the worrisome debate performance could have been overcome, IMO. All the praise for his accomplishments after the fact rang rather hollow.

He was thrown away like a used Kleenex, and I'm still pissed about it.

And, the party wasted Kamala in the process.

I’m fine with the pardon. We’ll never know if he would have won if he hadn’t dropped out but he stepped aside and said he was putting his country first. I believe him.

He might've saved his life by getting him out of it with the pardon.

I'm not happy with the response of some people over the pardon. Not happy at all.

Joe Biden has been an excellent President during his term. We're all going to miss him over the next four years. We're going to miss him very much.

I suspect that Joe Biden is simply going to go away and stay out of the public light from here on out. I can't blame him for that, either.

This from ROLLCALL:

But House lawmakers could continue to investigate the Biden family, and Senate committees under Republican control in the new Congress could also open their own investigations.

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., in a social media post, indicated that it was a given that President Biden would pardon Hunter Biden. But LaLota said what “truly matters” are larger questions, such as what are the potential risks to U.S. security stemming from potential dealings involving the Biden family.

“These are the questions that deserve our full attention. Let’s stay focused on what really matters,” LaLota, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said.

House lawmakers could also decide to continue to pursue testimony from two Justice Department attorneys about a criminal case against Hunter Biden. The committee filed a lawsuit that seeks to compel compliance with congressional subpoenas.

https://rollcall.com/2024/12/02/house-republicans-can-still-investigate-bidens-after-hunter-pardon/

The Rethugs were planning, and may still be planning, to reopen the whole Burisma thing. I personally think they want to nail Hunter for Treason and that they would subpoena Joe to testify before Congress to defend any involvement they insist he had.

His Son Hunter from a Mob of Vicious Sadistic Destroyers of America With Pitchforks and Torches 🔥🔥🔥

Sounds like we’re in some Sci Fy movie but we’re Not.

What Joe Biden did for Hunter is Epic! And America 🇺🇸 Actually. 💙🕯️🕊️🌈

I respect The President for this pardon and for all the work he is doing to protect us right up to the last days of his presidency.

Who dont deserve TSF's horseshit retribution. I would love for him to resign and make Kamala 47. Just to piss off TSF Then she can pardon him(Joe), and piss off TSF again.

I think a slim possibility, though. He could do that, but he can wait until the very end of his term if he wants to. Right now, he's very busy putting things into action at the end of his term. We're not paying much attention to that, and that's probably a good thing. We'll find out what last things he did were before long.

It is what it is. We're in for some rocky times, beginning on January 20, 2025. I'm not looking forward to that one bit.

and every congresscritter on the j6 committee.

not to mention the vindman bros and the jurors and grand jurors in all of trump's trials.

the capital police probably need pardons

and probably a lot more

,leaving any of trump's potential victims in position to be epstiened woulkd be a mistake.

Trump can pardon every shitbag that comes down the pike, and nobody says boo.

The fact the Rapepublicans are up in arms over it is delicious.

Fuck your feelings if you have a problem with it!

And God bless, which is something coming from an atheist

.......as members of the Republican Party have created this persecution, demanded this prosecution and they can go to hell".

Instead of small minded petty qibbling.

Let’s M-O-V-E O-N to something worth talking about!

Thank you President Biden! You did the good and just thing by pardoning Hunter.

I don’t know details — but when John Dean speaks up on the subject, my ears perk up.

People still don't get it. Why go into a gun fight with a slingshot? Taking the high road has never worked. People getting their panties in a bunch because Joe Biden pardoned his son??? Give me a break!
As long as we kowtow to the Repukes, as long as we accept their both-siderism, we will be dominated by them. If we continue to play by the rules whenthey don't we will forever be marginalized.

And a black hat with "Dark Brandon" printed across the headband.

Then immediately went on television after djt nominated Kash Patel,... Joe Biden should have immediately pardoned his son Hunter Biden. Explaining to the world - knowing the further damage Patel and Team trDUMP would have rained down on Hunter were his father not to pardon him. Pestering, bothering, and torturing Hunter would have become a source of great entertainment for this band of Fascists until Hunter was eating fentanyl all day long with a table spoon.

Then Dark Brandon should have said,... your Fascism sucks,.. your Nazi Manifesto - Project 2025 sucks,... your plans for a dictatorship sucks, and you MAGA Cult sucks.

Between now and January 25, 2025 President Biden AKA Dark Brandon will issue a minimum of ten (cnt. - 10) Presidential Executive Orders each and every day to protect American Democracy from Nazi monsters like trDUMP, his buffoons he has chosen for his cabinet, and his MAGA Fascist crew of violent citizenry who masquerade as djt's private militia goon squad against the "OTHERS" these Nazis so proudly demean, deplore, degrade, and hate with a passion.

President Biden's Angola visit is yet another Big F'n Deal that has gone unheralded and too little appreciated.
Joe knows way more about Angola and the future than any of us realize. As goes Angola, Namibia, the DRC and Zambia, so goes the southern half of Africa.


https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/02/fact-sheet-president-bidens-trip-to-angola/


In September 2023, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin became the first U.S. Secretary of Defense to visit Angola. In June 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense hosted the inaugural Joint Angolan-American Defense Cooperation Committee (DEFCOM) at the Pentagon. During DEFCOM, representatives signed an agreement to allow the exchange of logistics goods and services between our respective militaries, which facilitates cooperation as we continue to build our growing defense partnership. Angola and the U.S. Department of Defense, with the Department of State as appropriate, are continuing to plan for cooperative work in the areas of engineering, medicine, cyber, peacekeeping, maritime security, and the development of a coast guard. The next DEFCOM meeting is planned to be held in Angola in 2025.

In September 2024, Angola agreed to join Department of Defense’s State Partnership Program (SPP) executed by the National Guard Bureau. Through the SPP, Guard units work with partner militaries to bolster capabilities, improve interoperability, and enhance principles of responsible governance. The SPP fosters long-term relationships across all levels of society and encourages the development of economic, political, and military ties between U.S. states and partner nations. The National Guard Bureau is currently in the process of pairing Angola with a State National Guard that is well-aligned with Angola’s requirements.

Since 2020, the United States has dedicated nearly $17 million toward training and professionalization for the Angolan military, including English language training, expanding women’s access to military education courses in the United States, and maritime security-focused training. In just the past year, the U.S. increased annual International Military Education and Training assistance to Angola from $500,000 to $600,000. The United States is also providing the Angolan Marines with eight rigid-hull inflatable boats and other critical equipment, with the final four boats scheduled to be delivered to Angola by the end of 2025.

The United States has been proud to partner with Angola to address regional and global issues, and it remains a steadfast partner in navigating challenging and complex situations. The United States is providing more than $1 billion in additional humanitarian funding which will assist countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, to respond to humanitarian crises including displacement and El Nino-induced drought.

The United States is supporting Angola’s development of a cyber security strategy through almost $1.4 million in projects providing training and mentorship to the future cybersecurity workforce and assisting the Angolan Ministry of Defense’s creation of a cyber defense capability.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has initiated discussions with the Angolan Ministries of Interior, Finance, and Trade on a three-year, $5 million program to bolster the two countries’ management, oversight, and accountability of their trade and travel sectors. The program would focus on modernizing information sharing, allowing the governments to interdict threats and hazards at the earliest possible point, and mitigate and monitor threats from transnational criminal organizations and other malign non-state actors.

Between 2019 and 2023, the Treasury Department provided technical assistance to help strengthen Angolan institutions’ ability to identify, detect, and prosecute money laundering, terrorist financing, and other crimes in support of Angola’s political and economic reforms. USAID and the State Department are working with various Angolan institutions—including Parliament, the National Court of Accounts, and the Ministries of Health, Education and Finance—to build their public financial management, debt management, and anti-corruption capacity. Capacity is also being built to support Angola’s implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative standard.

The United States and Angola are working together to combat timber trafficking through the creation of a National Forest Inventory, a critical tool for any country that seeks to conserve and manage its forest resources sustainably. The State Department, through the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), announced $750,000 in new programs in Angola to improve the identification, interdiction, and confiscation of illicit commodities. USAID will add $1.3 million from fiscal year 2023 Southern Africa regional Sustainable Landscapes resources to an existing partnership of $1.3 million to expand the partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and the Government of Angola’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forests to continue work on the forest inventory, establish a partnership for carbon market utilization, and develop a Forest Monitoring System.
The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration provides funding to support refugee assistance, as well as regional funding to UNHCR to support the nearly 56,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Angola.

Angola is a founding member of the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, an initiative committed to the interconnected goals of advancing a peaceful, stable, prosperous, open, safe, and cooperative Atlantic as well as to conserving the Atlantic Ocean as a healthy, sustainable, and resilient resource for generations to come. To develop Angola’s capacity for ocean science research and support for ocean-based food security, the United States is collaborating with the Atlantic community to leverage support for Angola’s ocean research vessel Baia Farta. The United States and Angola have concluded a Letter of Intent to formalize collaboration, including, for example, on bringing U.S. experts to Angola to support ocean science capacity building and training through the Fulbright Specialist program....

May we revere President Joe Biden as long as he lives.

How quickly we forget when we are disappointed. We have also forgot that we were short on turnout in the 2024 election. Too bad for us, I guess.

If anyone doubted that Hunter's prosecution was anything other than political, they need to be reminded that MTG showed nude pictures of Hunter in the House proceedings. That was not seeking justice, it was seeking humiliation. They knew he is a recovering addict and hoped he would break, and thus his father too. The whole thing was just evil.

in history, in 2020, People vote for the familiar.

He can very well do whatever he damn well pleases!

His son was/is a victim of the cowards who wouldn't dare investigate themselves and their rhetoric lies.

This whole thing is surrealistic. And frustrating.

I'm mad that I don't know what to do, mostly. I want to rebel. I want to protest, I have this anger that I need to express! Scream with the thunder type of feeling. But, I have to be silent. And I don't want to be.

I'm going to spend the weekend with a friend on a reservation, they know how to scream!

sage

That's how they got Cannon -- purportedly a federal judge -- to dismiss the documents case. It's pretty rich to come after President Biden for pardoning his son over a prosecution that, according to Trump's legal team, should have been dismissed over the legality of the prosecutor's appointment.

And all Biden’s fair-weather friends are welcome to GFY.

Let him pardon away. He has the power, let him use it. Dotard used it for his criminal cabal.

Now that Katie Tur is off and Nicole Wallace is in on I won’t hear about it too much. It will die out in a few days most likely.

Thank you for expressing my thoughts so well.

You have EVERY RIGHT to do so, and I’m glad to see that the coverage (probably somewhat begrudgingly) points out that he’s already paid quite a bit of his dues AND his debt to society!

You do what you damn well feel like doing, sir! Never mind what the public says or thinks. Besides, I can’t help but suspect at least some of it is - um - deliberately generated by haters high and low.

As time goes by, you will be more and more admired and even venerated. YOUR record already puts that orange guy to shame. He has what my mother used to say: a heart like a BB. YOU, on the other hand, have a heart as big as all outdoors.

They can't prosecute him but they can persecute him

We have a child raping pig occupying the oval cone January.

People who are claiming we are being hypocrites over the Hunter Biden pardon are full of it and making false equivalencies. The President has the power to issue pardons and if your going to say he can't use it in this case then they might as well not have pardoning power. Or those who say it's an abuse of power, because Hunter is the Presidents Son are full of it too. Yes he did the crimes, but they were pretty minor. A non-violent gun charge and some tax issues in which he has already paid back. Would've been perfectly reasonable for any President to have pardoned Hunter. Meanwhile Trump had already pardoned Jared Kushner's Father and people who had committed crimes in his servitude such as Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon. If Joe hadn't pardoned Hunter it's very likely Trump would spent the next 4 years dangling a pardon to blackmail Hunter in some way.

Gosh, amazed no one has cited this history before to my knowledge. Not even Chris Hayes (big Pierce fan) or Rachel (big history buff) .

I guess I'll finally put in my 2 cents after a month of shock, anger and depression over the Harris/Walz defeat that was apparently everyone's fault but the DNC and its benefactors in Hollywood.

I, along with many friends and family members, are disgusted at the despicable treatment of Joe Biden. How quickly and unabashedly backs and support turned away from a true statesman and champion of core democratic values such as human rights, women's rights, unwavering and bold union support, green job creation, the Covid recovery and the list goes on ad infinitum of the significant progress Joe forged for us.

Although we, as a country (and in particular as democrats) certainly did not deserve this defeat, deep deep down I hope Joe feels vindicated. The greatest loss we suffered was the loss of a fine and just president who cares about all of us. We lost this election due to Citizens United. Plain and simple. Our CU bandits reside in Hollywood not Wall Street but are equally dangerous.

I'm so very proud of Joe for saving his son. And Jill's response yesterday was a small bit of satisfaction for me and others devastated by the candidate switcheroo wrought upon our party by the corporate wing of our beloved Democrat party.

And to the pundits and incumbents on their fainting couches crying foul: nobody cares what you think about this or anything else after what your big glamorous money did to destroy our President and hand our country over to a magalomaniac. And yes I spelled it wrong on purpose!!

As for me, while the sadness and sick feelings continue, I intend to focus my efforts down ballot. Way down ballot. Besides voting each two years I think this is the best place to seek out and make substantive change.

Last, very grateful for DU. I don't post much so now is the perfect time to say thank you all.

Slava UKRAINI!!!

...like a used Kleenex.

always afraid we would lose because This sort of upheaval in an election often brings dire consequences. The amount of money she raised was encouraging and I was hopeful. I was somewhat optimistic but honestly the only way to the presidency is through the rustbelt.

He has been through more than enough, and he did his very best. He's as solid as a rock. Every time I see anything about it that is critical I want to scream BACK OFF! DON'T MESS WITH JOE!

Still with you, Joe.

How wretched Hunter's prison experience could be after Trump takes over and appoints a new head of the federal Bureau of Prisons? Sure, Hunter's offenses were all non-violent and usually get fairly congenial prison accommodations - but Trump plays mean. Trump could even set his hounds to find more offenses to charge Hunter. There's that to consider.

And did we really want Joe Biden, in his 80s, to have to visit his son in a prison?

I do not care if some are unhappy with this pardon. President Biden will be out of office next year and will not be the nominee for the next cycle. President Biden listened to party leaders and dropped out. Now President Biden is taking steps that are in the best interest of his family

I approve of President Biden's pardon of his son and I appreciate the actions taken by President Biden in the past on behalf the party and our country

Every Elected Democrat in the country, from president down to dog catcher.

Then every registered Democrat in the country. Laws and customs and traditions are dead. Stop playing polite, pretending this is anything less than what it is

Trump is going to pardon himself. I mean, what the hell??

Joe Biden has every right to protect his family, the right wing cretins in Congress and the upcoming “administration” had no intention of letting this rest. These people are vengeful sociopaths, they have no problem destroying norms and pursuing revenge against anyone who stands in their way. Everything is about the personal they don’t give a shit about this country or anyone in it.

Unlike the hearings into shitler's misdeeds, the hearings aimed at President Biden and his son really were witch hunts.

He should just Tina Turner-it and go to Switzerland. Enjoy his life, ski the Alps, yodel.

I was crushed when he did, but I got behind Kamala Harris with everything I had.

But to your point, I am DAMN PROUD Biden pardoned his son! I hope he does some other stuff we don't perceive as purely democratic, whatever the F*ck it takes to save democracy or at least to slow the destruction of our great nation, I support it! Joe Biden has immunity to do his job to protect the republic. Let him use every power at his disposal because after he leaves office, the rule of law is gone. Wake up and smell reality, Democrats!

He doesn't have to answer to anyone about not wanting to turn his son over to that hob of rabid ferrets that passes for the Repug party.

how can they NOT know what we're facing without Biden's experience & brilliance?!?
it boggles the mind...

I feel like Joe did the right thing, and most of us would have done the same in similar circumstances. I don't watch faux news, but I'm sure the right wing is throwing a fit (while they excuse all the pardons Trump made). Ignore them and their billionaire press.

Thanks for everything, Joe.

I imagine he relied and TRUSTED that the American people would, in kind, do the right thing and elect his very capable VP--a bargain of sorts. When The People reneged on that bargain by picking TSF, they spat in Biden's face more insultingly than the coaxing of him to step aside, so it's all good that he would be like, "F**k me???.. No, F**K YOU!!!!!"

So I don't know who's doing the complaining about Hunter Biden's pardon. Whoever they are, pfffft! to them and their utter lameness. If they're MAGA fascists, of course, it's to be expected. Those folks have no conscience, no ability to think critically, and no sensitivity to grasp the meaning of the love of a father for a son, a son whose life was already hell before the Marching MAGA Morons in the Congress and the "news" media jumped at the chance to destroy him utterly.

So, if you voted against Trump but don't like the pardon, that's your very wrong and stupid opinion. You have a human right to be stupid, but may none of your kids, or your friends, or your friends kids ever suffer the kind of mean, sadistic, and ugly personal attacks that Hunter Biden did - by the most vindictive and soulless people in America.

Looks like POTUS Biden was railroaded out of the Presidency and his own good faith intentions by our own Democratic Party.

POTUS Biden owes nothing to the USA nor the Democratic Party except his own personal peace of mind.

POTUS Joe Biden is a great POTUS given the times and situations of his time in office and is the last person to be blamed for what went so wrong.

Joe Biden is the best damn President of my lifetime and I've seen them all since Eisenhower. Nobody did it better. Nobody.

AMERICA has EVERYTHING to lose

Whining over trump’s promised pardoning the jailed insurrectionist?

I appreciate Joe Biden too, Mineral Man. I haven't uttered a word against his pardoning his son. It was trumped-up charges, he has straightened up his life & paid the taxes. Stack Hunter up against the likes of the criminals AH's going to pardon, and there's no comparison. Hunter's a bonified Angel from Heaven compared to any of that bunch, let alone AH's cabinet !!!

until the Republicans in congress stepped on the Republican prosecutor's neck. Joe's biggest mistake was letting his stay in office after the election.

I said at the time that his stepping down guaranteed a slobfather win. I'm not happy to have been proven right.

However, I was also disappointed that he withdrew from the race. I had hopes that Kamala Harris would prevail, but that was not to be. The reasons are still a bit of a puzzle to me, but...

Joe Biden rescued us from an immediate second term of Trumpness. In his four years, he has done much good and at least partially undid the damage done by Trump. What will happen next is anyone's guess. I'm not looking forward to finding out, frankly.

If we are so fickle, though, as to toss Joe Biden aside, leaving him at the curb, the future does not look rosy to me. I'm displeased at all of it.

had a negative view about Hunter's pardon, I did not post any of them in the daily toons.

Disappointed, to be sure, but not surprised. We seem to have lost our way somehow.

It's called being a Dad.

If you haven't walked a mile in the shoes of a parent of an imprisoned child, you don't understand.

If you have, you understand perfectly.

all Democratic politicians and left-leaning media figures who urged him to drop out.

..... potential Djt targets. Do it, man!

Appoint Hunter Ambassador to France until jailbird Kushner takes over in January

This decision was not easy for him. I'm certain that he agonized over it.

He is a highly ethical man. However, in the end, he chose the right thing to do, given all the circumstances.

It was an unfair prosecution. If it's too hard for Republicans to understand the difference between unfair and fair prosecutions, Democrats shouldn't be helping them be confused about it.

As for saving us from Trump, I'm not sure that part worked out