This started as an essay on how even a little bit of political power can corrupt otherwise well-meaning souls who enter politics.
And then, President Joe Biden issued his “absolute” pardon of his son Hunter and “absolutely” proved Lord Acton’s famous apothegm to be 100% valid.
Lord Acton nailed it in a letter dated April 5, 1887, to Mandell Creighton, archbishop of the Church of England, in response to Creighton’s assertion that people criticize leaders in authority much too harshly:
“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. … Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”
Biden was elected in 2020 with 12 million more votes than any candidate had ever received before because he was supposedly an honest “good ole Joe” who was going to “unite the nation” (his words in his inaugural speech) and never lie to the American people ― plus the fact he was not Donald Trump.
But on Dec. 1, 2024, he signed this pardon while in Normandy and broke his promise never to do so:
“Be It Known, That This Day, I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, Pursuant to My Powers Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, of the Constitution, Have Granted Unto ROBERT HUNTER BIDEN
A Full and Unconditional Pardon
For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted (including any that have resulted in convictions) in Delaware and California.”
Here’s the interesting thing: Hunter Biden was pardoned for all offenses he committed AND all those he “may have committed or taken part in from 2014 to 2024.”
No one ever expected Biden to leave his son fully helpless on the chopping block like Abraham did with Isaac until Yahweh delivered a ram to be sacrificed in his stead. Biden could have simply commuted the sentences Hunter was about to receive this month for tax evasion and lying on his gun purchase application and left it at that.
However, Biden must have thought Trump and his team would do unto him what he and the Obama World of legal assassins have done to Trump and his team for the past nine years. Biden cast a very wide net over any and all crimes Hunter “may have committed” from three years before Joe Biden left office as vice president to Dec. 1. This is what is so troubling about the Hunter Biden “pardon” by his father ― there appears to be so much more to the story.
The “vast right-wing conspiracy,” as Hillary Clinton famously labeled Republican antagonists, has long sought to tie the nefarious dealings of Hunter Biden with Ukraine and China to his father while his father was still vice president to President Barack Obama. No one overseas or in the U.S. would want to hire Hunter Biden unless he was the son of a sitting vice president who could do something for them while in office.
In Washington, who you know is far more important than what you know.
Everyone knows that ― including Joe Biden.
Former NBC correspondent John Harwood tried to speak on behalf of the left-wing media and progressive Democrats who insisted Biden was the second coming of George Washington in terms of virtue when he posted this on X on June 13:
“People who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves they can’t imagine anyone acting on principle and keeping his word.”
Well, apparently Joe Biden is acting on principle ― Lord Acton’s.
With this absolute pardon, Joe Biden has not only saved his son from sentencing and further prosecution, but he has also cut the legs out from under any future prosecution of himself by removing Hunter as any sort of a target for further legal investigations.
Don’t be surprised if on Jan. 20, 2025, at precisely 11:59 a.m., President Joe Biden issues the same unconditional pardon to himself and other members of the Biden clan to prevent any future legal action against him in relation to his involvement with all of the tangled overseas network of Hunter Biden.
