The about-face was a moment that drew criticism from President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans who led the investigations into Hunter Biden’s crimes, and it might have cemented Joe Biden’s reputation as a man who cares more about his family than his party or country. 

Hunter Biden was at the center of a yearslong effort by House Republicans to impeach the president, relying on loose ties between the then-vice president’s actions and his son’s shady business deals. Those efforts eventually fizzled out as investigators struggled to produce concrete evidence Joe Biden knowingly assisted and benefited from his son’s questionable business relationships, such as taking a high-paying position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company despite his lack of expertise. 

However, Hunter Biden was tried and convicted on felony tax and gun charges earlier this year. He was set to face sentencing later this month before Sunday night’s pardon. 

The president insisted his change of heart came because his son was “treated differently” than the average citizen facing charges of failing to pay his taxes or lying on a federal form about his drug use to purchase a revolver in 2018. 

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” Joe Biden said in a statement. “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.” 

Trump, who has been waging his own battle with the Department of Justice, has offered pardons of close family members, and could wind up pardoning himself to remove the possibility of his DOJ fight reemerging down the line, blasted the president for the eleventh-hour move. 

“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump said in a Truth Social post. 

Trump is expected to issue a raft of pardons for people who were arrested in the fallout of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. 

Although the investigation into Hunter Biden had been playing out for years, when the DOJ began investigating him via U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s office in 2019, the president said the unfair treatment of his son came in a proxy fight to keep him from being elected. 

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” he said, while also defending a sweeping plea deal that would have granted his son broad immunity that fell apart when a federal judge questioned attorneys about the provisions and said she could not accept the deal. 

Joe Biden had reportedly been racked with guilt as his son was investigated and tried. He expressed concerns that the pressure would drive Hunter to begin abusing drugs again. When he was sentenced later this month, Hunter faced up to 20 years in prison, though he would have likely been given a lighter sentence.

The prospect of any jail time at all, however, was what pushed the president to go back on his word and pardon his son. 

“Once it became clear that the Justice Department was dead set on jail time, this was always how it was ending,” one person close to the president told Axios. 

It isn’t clear when there will be more information about the pardon, as the president left town on what is likely his final foreign trip as the country’s chief executive, and there has been no word from the White House on when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre or any other communications officials will speak with reporters or the country. 

Bipartisan firepower

Politics is as partisan as ever, and Republicans are plowing ahead with big plans to shake up the country with their unified control of the White House and Congress. Majorities in the House and Senate are slim, with the lower chamber in particular looking like it will be another fine needle to thread for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has had his majority ransacked by Trump tapping members for important jobs in his coming administration. 

Things are more comfortable in the Senate, in which Republicans have a three-seat majority — not enough to force through any bit of legislation they’d like, but enough to confirm Trump’s appointees without much trouble. 

House and Senate math are going to be interesting storylines to follow in the near future, but there are some issues that are unifying enough that a new crop of senators are willing to set partisan politics aside to address. 

Sen.-elect Tim Sheehy (R-MT) was the likely clincher for incoming Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) obtaining his new title. Sheehy appears ready to mix it up with the fiercest fighters in the chamber, including California’s newest member, Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA), who has made a name for himself as a sharp operator in the House. 

Despite the two not shying away from a fight, they, along with Sen.-elect Andy Kim (D-NJ), are on course to take time out of their bouts to address wildfires that are plaguing each of their states, Congressional Reporter Ramsey Touchberry wrote for us this morning in another installment of our Capitol Crop series introducing the new faces making up the incoming House and Senate. 

“The senators-elect, lamenting to one another at freshman orientation this month about recent wildfires that have ravaged their states, found an early opportunity for compromise as Washington gears up for a one-party Congress and White House,” Ramsey wrote.

“Wildfires are ‘normal life’ for those west of the Mississippi, Sheehy said, drawing on his company’s experience battling flames. Montana has experienced at least 171 wildfires this year, and California skies are frequently turned an eerie orange from massive fires. This year, some East Coast states are also feeling the heat. New Jersey is facing a nearly threefold increase in the thousands of acres burned annually amid a drought,” Ramsey wrote.

There is little chance the three senators-elect unifying on one issue is going to smooth the way on more contentious questions, but the pressure valve could go some distance in restoring faith in Congress as an institution where fights can be resolved and problems get solved. 

“We realized that we all agreed it was time for us to focus on wildfires in a different way, and it’ll probably be one of the few areas that a very polarized country can work together on,” Sheehy told Ramsey. “That issue can be a briefing tool to many other issues related to your resource industries, whether it’s oil and gas leases, forestry, mining, a lot of issues that I think emanate from that issue set and can be something we work together on.”

Click here to read more about the unlikely alliance.

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For your radar

Biden left for Angola on Sunday evening, the first time a sitting president has visited the country. The trip will go through Wednesday. 

Vice President Kamala Harris has nothing on her public schedule. 

First lady Jill Biden announced the 2024 White House holiday theme is a “season of peace and light.”