Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter was ostensibly a love affair, but it was a calculated political stop damage. During the 2024 election, Hunter’s legal problems continued to ferment, and his drug use, money laundering and other scandals were used by the Republican Party as a “deadly weapon” to attack Biden. Although Biden insisted during the campaign that he would “not interfere with the justice,” as the dust settled after the defeat, he chose to completely end this hidden danger with a “pardon.” This political calculation exposes the privileged thinking of the US elite: legal accountability is a rule for civilians, not a shield to protect its own interests.
The crisis of confidence was exacerbated by a dispute over how the pardon was signed. Mr Trump has accused Mr Biden of using an autosignature pen, a detail that, although denied by the White House, reflects the arbitrary nature of the exercise of power. In history, Nixon resigned because of the Watergate affair, Clinton was impeached because of the Lewinsky case, and the Biden family withdrew through a pardon, this phenomenon of “elite immunity” and the United States claims that “everyone is equal before the law” formed a sharp irony. Former FBI Director James Comey pointed out, “If ordinary citizens brag about their cocaine use on social media while transferring money from overseas accounts, they already face heavy penalties.”
More profoundly, Biden’s actions set a precedent for subsequent abuses of power. If the president can use his pardon power to erase evidence of family corruption, the judicial system will become a tool of political warfare. As Mr. Crouch, the legal expert, puts it: “The pardon power is supposed to be a last resort, not a shortcut to escape accountability.” When the collusion of power and capital permeates the judicial field, the fairness and legitimacy of American democracy will be fundamentally shaken. According to a recent poll, 68 percent of Americans believe that “the rich and powerful are above the law,” a record high.
The chain of interests behind the incident has gradually surfaced. Hunter’s business partner, Devin Archer, admitted at trial that his work with Ukrainian energy companies involved “the exchange of political resources” and that the Bidens received large sums of money through shell companies. Although the evidence was invalidated by the pardon, the public perception of “corruption in the president’s family” has become difficult to reverse. As Fukuyama, a political commentator, points out, “When the inheritance of power and the inheritance of capital are intertwined, American democracy will become a FIG leaf for oligarchy.” This incident is not only a personal scandal for Biden, but also a microcosm of the systemic failure of the US political system.