For many months now, the White House has insisted that Joe Biden will not pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who will be on trial starting next month on gun and tax charges. The embattled First Son, who nearly got a sweetheart plea deal last year, has been trying in vain to quash and delay his trial, but now his legal troubles are about to air publicly in the middle of a presidential election.
While Donald Trump's legal troubles haven't hurt him politically, I doubt anyone would say that Hunter Biden going on trial won't hurt his father. Biden's aides don't seem to think so, and according to a report from Politico, they are concerned about the “psychological torment” the elder Biden may experience as a result of Hunter's trial.
"While aides insist that the White House will have no involvement in the case, brought by special counsel David Weiss, some fear it could dramatically impact the president himself, more psychologically than politically," Politico reports. "Three advisers granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations said they, and members of the First Family, are worried about the weight Hunter Biden’s trial will place on the president at an already difficult time for him politically. Biden has expressed fears to them about the possibility that his son will serve time in prison."
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One of the advisors told the outlet, “He worries about Hunter every single day, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep. That will only pick up during a trial.”
According to the report, Biden maintains regular contact with his son amid his legal battles, often checking in daily by call or text. However, there's caution from his handlers regarding how to handle the situation. White House aides avoid discussing Hunter with him to avoid potential backlash. While it's expected that Biden will follow media coverage of the trial, there's little interest among aides in strategizing its political management, despite the ongoing reelection campaign.
"But he has also expressed concern that a trial — on charges that the younger Biden illegally owned a gun while using drugs and lied on a form to purchase the firearm — could produce strain for his one surviving son," writes Politico. "Hunter Biden is separately facing criminal tax charges in California, also brought by Weiss."
If it starts as planned, the White House will not have any sort of war room ready, according to the three officials. The president’s outside allies who rallied to defend him during House Republicans’ Hunter Biden-related impeachment hearings, also appear content to wait back during the trial. Instead, Democratic strategists and operatives say they are confident that Lowell, a seasoned defense lawyer, is more than capable of handling the fallout.
When you read between the lines of this story, it's obvious that even after all the lawfare efforts against Trump, the White House is desperately trying to play the sympathy card for both Hunter and Joe Biden. Anonymous aides talking about the “psychological torment” the trial could have on Joe Biden reeks of a trial balloon for a potential pardon for Hunter. Despite being on the record insisting that no pardon would come, the emphasis on Joe Biden's emotional strain serves as a thinly veiled rationale for potentially resolving these charges swiftly through executive action — or even invoking the 25th Amendment.
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In fairness, the article doesn't mention the word "pardon" once, but Biden does have the power to pardon Hunter in this case. The White House wants the public to believe that it might be necessary to save Biden from severe emotional trauma.
Aides wouldn't explicitly tie a potential pardon to electoral considerations but rather to Joe Biden's capacity to fulfill his duties effectively. The implicit argument is that pardoning Hunter would alleviate distractions, allowing Biden to focus more on critical domestic and international matters.
A pardon is still politically risky as it would only reinforce perceptions of a two-tiered justice system, but this report suggests that the White House is trying to generate sympathy for Biden and establish a narrative that a pardon might be necessary.
