The hypocrisy is the point

Olivia Troye

On Sunday evening, Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, from federal charges he was facing in connection to gun and tax violations. I’m not getting deep into the details of Hunter’s cases or the pardon itself here; if you’re interested, there is no lack of think pieces on the subject. Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the reactions to the pardon. Because frankly, the outrage has been ridiculously hyperbolic.


Full disclosure right up front: in case you haven’t heard, I received a cease-and-desist letter from Kash Patel’s attorney this week. It accused me of defaming Patel, who is Trump’s FBI nominee, because I told the truth about him on MSNBC on Monday. He’s demanding a full retraction and an apology on my X account. The thing about this is that it speaks volumes about Kash Patel’s ongoing promises to target political opponents and the media and what he is likely to do should he become head of the FBI. Needless to say, he won’t be getting a retraction from me. It’s clearly an attempt to intimidate and bully me. It’s also meant to scare others into silence as he goes through the confirmation process. We’ll see what happens next. But I have no ducks left to give this week.

Okay, back to the pardon and why it’s making everyone so insane.

Let’s start with the MAGA right. Years ago, when I was working in Donald Trump’s White House, the phrase ‘the cruelty is the point’ became popular on social media. It was a fitting way to describe policies that seemed designed to maximize misery merely so certain members of the administration could get their sadistic jollies. Particularly with regard to the border, the policies were deliberately cruel, and the harsh, inhumane treatment of migrants was intended to both punish those who had crossed the border illegally and deter others from doing the same.

So yes, the cruelty was absolutely the point and still is. But just as much—if not more so—the hypocrisy was the point, too. On the surface, Republican ire over Biden’s pardon is hilarious. Trump is a convicted felon who pardoned his own criminal conspirators in his last term, and he has pledged to pardon even more of them when he’s back in office. So why should Biden’s pardon matter to people who looked past all of that to (supposedly) lower the cost of eggs?

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