Watchman Lawless: In his last moments in office, Sick Biden pardons his family
A number of family members received preemptive pardons from Joe Biden, who did so because he was worried and should be that an investigations” might target them.
Minutes before President-elect Donald Trump walked into the Capitol rotunda to take his oath of office as the next commander in chief, the White House announced the pardons.
James Biden, his brother; Sara Jones Biden, his wife; Valerie Biden Owens, his younger sister; John Owens, Owens’ husband; and Francis Biden, his other brother, were all pardoned by Biden.
Members of the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol and their staff on January 6th were praised by Mr. Biden for their “integrity and a commitment to discovering the truth.” Fauci, who served for decades as the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the members of the committee were also mentioned. All of these people have been the targets of Republican anger and threats of punishment over what the party sees as their transgressions.
The president expressed his firm belief in the rule of law and expressed optimism that our legal institutions will finally triumph over politics. I cannot in good faith do nothing under these unusual circumstances, he added.
Members of the Jan. 6 committee have been the subject of speculation over the prospect of preemptive pardons. In the course of their probe, Trump claims, committee members committed “a major crime” and destroyed evidence. Last month, he stated on “Meet the Press” on NBC that “everybody” who was a part of the committee “should go to jail.”
Representative Bennie Thompson, who was in charge of the committee that met on January 6, recently told CBS News that he would gladly accept a preemptive pardon if given to him.
“Because he wants to weaponize the government against people for doing their jobs, and a lot of people believe him when he says that,” Thompson explained.
But other committee members have spoken out against pardons. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” stated California Democrat Rep. Pete Aguilar.
Despite acknowledging that “Donald Trump has clearly said he’s going to go after everybody,” former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger added, “the second you take a pardon, it looks like you’re guilty of something.”
“All I’ve done is expose Donald Trump to the American people and bring the truth to light,” Kinzinger told CNN.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, the only Republican on the panel, had been Trump’s target since her time on the committee, when he endorsed a primary challenger who she had defeated. Trump insulted her during the campaign, calling her a “stupid person” and a “war hawk.” He made the comment, “let’s see how she feels about it, you know when the guns are trained on her face.”
At a ceremony held at the White House earlier this month, Mr. Biden presented Cheney and Thompson with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award.
This decision follows a string of record-breaking individual pardons and commutations issued by the president in the past few weeks. On Friday alone, he commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 individuals, and in December alone, he pardoned nearly 40 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
After issuing a blanket pardon to his son Hunter for any and all crimes committed by Hunter Biden between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, Vice President Joe Biden came under fire in December. In June, Hunter Biden received a three-count criminal conviction stemming from his concealment of his drug use on papers to acquire a handgun in 2018. This incident occurred while he was struggling with an addiction to illicit substances. Separately, in September, he entered a guilty plea to nine counts of tax evasion.
