The President's Daily Brief
PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 2nd, 2024: Biden's Sweeping Pardon For Hunter & Iranian-Backed Iraqi Militias Join The Fight In Syria
Mon, 02 Dec 2024
In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: First, after a long legal odyssey, President Joe Biden has granted his son Hunter Biden a full and unconditional presidential pardon, insulating him from facing justice for crimes dating back a decade. Then, an update on the intensifying fight in Syria, where Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have crossed into Syria to aid forces of the Assad regime, as they attempt to mount a counteroffensive against rebel groups who seized control of Aleppo last week. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Patriot Gold: Call 1-888-870-5457 for a free investor guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the topic of Biden's pardon for Hunter?
Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, in a move that, frankly, should surprise no one, President Biden has granted his son Hunter Biden a full and unconditional presidential pardon, insulating him from facing justice for crimes dating back a decade.
Then, an update on the intensifying fight in Syria, where Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have crossed into Syria to aid forces of the Assad regime as they attempt to mount a counteroffensive against rebel groups who seized control of Aleppo last week. But first, our afternoon spotlight.
After a long legal odyssey, President Biden has decided to issue a sweeping presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, ahead of the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the Oval Office.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of Hunter Biden's pardon?
The legal breadth of the pardon is, well, rather extraordinary, not only protecting Hunter from his upcoming sentencing related to federal felony gun and tax convictions, but also retroactively covering any offenses committed between January 1st, 2014 and December 1st, 2024.
We should also note that the move reverses numerous past promises from President Biden that he would respect the legal decisions regarding his son and not use his executive authority for the benefit of his family. Now, that's fine when a president is talking about, well, just an unrelated individual. I mean, you can make that sort of unemotional, disconnected decision.
But the dynamic, the decision, was always going to be a pardon. Because you're talking about a father dealing with his son. Now, you can seriously disagree with the decision, for sure. But anybody with a kid would be hard-pressed to honestly say that they would have not pardoned their own child if given the ability.
Chapter 3: How does the Biden family history affect the pardon decision?
When announcing the pardon on Sunday, Biden spoke of Hunter's past struggles with drug addiction and argued that the trials against his son were the result of a political witch hunt designed to, quote, break him and his family.
President Biden said, quote, No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son, and that is wrong. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough, end quote. Now, Hunter, well, he did break the law.
Frankly, any ordinary citizen who committed similar acts as Hunter would have been tried and convicted long ago. So he wasn't simply singled out, as President Biden said, because his last name is Biden. In truth, he managed to avoid earlier legal consequences for his actions because his name is Biden.
Chapter 4: What has been the public reaction to Hunter Biden's legal troubles?
Chapter 5: What is happening in the fight in Syria?
After a long legal odyssey, President Biden has decided to issue a sweeping presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, ahead of the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the Oval Office.
The legal breadth of the pardon is, well, rather extraordinary, not only protecting Hunter from his upcoming sentencing related to federal felony gun and tax convictions, but also retroactively covering any offenses committed between January 1st, 2014 and December 1st, 2024.
We should also note that the move reverses numerous past promises from President Biden that he would respect the legal decisions regarding his son and not use his executive authority for the benefit of his family. Now, that's fine when a president is talking about, well, just an unrelated individual. I mean, you can make that sort of unemotional, disconnected decision.
But the dynamic, the decision, was always going to be a pardon. Because you're talking about a father dealing with his son. Now, you can seriously disagree with the decision, for sure. But anybody with a kid would be hard-pressed to honestly say that they would have not pardoned their own child if given the ability.
When announcing the pardon on Sunday, Biden spoke of Hunter's past struggles with drug addiction and argued that the trials against his son were the result of a political witch hunt designed to, quote, break him and his family.
President Biden said, quote, No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son, and that is wrong. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me, and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough, end quote. Now, Hunter, well, he did break the law.
Frankly, any ordinary citizen who committed similar acts as Hunter would have been tried and convicted long ago. So he wasn't simply singled out, as President Biden said, because his last name is Biden. In truth, he managed to avoid earlier legal consequences for his actions because his name is Biden.
But also, on the other side of that fence, it's a truism that presidential pardons are, well, commonplace in Washington politics. Look, Trump himself previously pardoned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner's father, for tax evasion, and he's just nominated him as the new ambassador to France. My point being, well, it's Washington, D.C., and both sides play the same game.
As a reminder, in June of this year, a Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden of three felonies for lying about past drug use on a form when purchasing a gun in 2018. He was due in court on December 12th to face sentencing on the charges, which many expected would land him a stint in jail.
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