On Sunday, the president announced he signed a pardon for the first son, who was convicted of tax and gun felonies this year. This was a sharp reversal of the president’s previous position that he would not do so, with his decision receiving admonishments from Democrats and outrage from Republicans.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a vocal critic of the president over the Israel-Hamas war, shared a post on X that called on him to pardon tens of thousands of people in federal prison for drug offenses.

“This,” Tlaib said, with the post asking, “When are their pardons coming?”

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), who joined over 60 Democratic lawmakers calling on the president to grant blanket clemency to thousands incarcerated in federal prison in late November, said Tuesday that she agreed Hunter Biden faced “harsh sentencing and unfair treatment.”

“But so do thousands of others, disproportionately black folks,” Lee said.

Led by Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jim Clyburn (D-SC), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), the Democrats sent a letter to the president asking him for pardons for the elderly, chronically ill, those on death row, and others to be completed before Jan. 20, 2025.

The president has granted 25 pardons and 132 commutations out of the thousands of applications the administration has received since 2021.

“Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges,” the lawmakers wrote in November.

Prior to the president’s pardon of his son, Pressley posted that mass incarceration is “a crisis and clemency is part of the solution.”

However, popular progressives such as Pressley and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) have not publicly commented on the Hunter Biden pardon, with a Hill aide telling the Washington Examiner that not many progressives are too bothered by the actual pardon itself.

“There’s a collective shrug among Hill progressives,” the aide said. “Trump did this, Biden’s following the trend.”

In his first administration, President-elect Donald Trump granted 144 pardons and 94 commutations. Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Some Democrats are in favor of the president’s decision, accusing the investigation into Hunter Biden as politically motivated. The president, in his pardon announcement, said his son was “treated differently” and that “raw politics has infected this process, and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

One House Democrat told the Washington Examiner, “Personally, I don’t like the pardon system, but I understand it’s part of the constitution.”

However, the lawmaker said, “If a president is going to issue a pardon, then this is a good one.”

“Hunter Biden was a target for political reasons, so being pardoned through a political tool seems appropriate,” the House Democrat said.

Several other congressional Democrats and state leaders have leaped into the fray to criticize the president. Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) called the move “understandable” but “unwise.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said the president should have used his pardon power elsewhere.

“Presidents have the right to pardon who they want, but I fundamentally believe pardons should be used to right the wrongs of the past — not for family members or to hand out political favors,” Baldwin said in a statement.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), once considered a centrist Democrat whose stances have shifted more liberal with Colorado’s electorate over the years, said Tuesday Biden’s decision to pardon his son “put personal interest ahead of duty” and “further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”

Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) said, as a father, he understands the president’s decision. However, he said in a post to X that he is “disappointed” the president put his family “ahead of the country.”

“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Polis said. “When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to numerous progressive lawmakers for comment.