Joe Biden just gave us another reason to despair

Many Americans — as well as everyone else who wants to be inspired by that country — were already in a blue funk at the bonfire Donald Trump promises to make of US laws, rules and regulations when he returns to the White House in January. As for norms, which aren’t written down, President-elect Trump hasn’t promised to incinerate them so much as ignore them.

But what of President Joe Biden? Is it possible for him to break his word yet again in more consequential fashion?

When he ran for president in 2020, Mr Biden promised he would be a bridge to the future, a one-term president.

His task, Mr Biden gave us to understand, was to clean house after four years of the Trump administration, hit reset on ethics, propriety and norms, then step aside for a younger, more visionary leader to take the country forward.

Instead, Mr Biden started to wobble on that promise after his Democratic party won the November 2022 mid-term elections. He started to believe that he was unbeatable. In a fatal decision, he announced another 2024 run for the White House. We all know how that ended: With a late exit from the race, a hasty endorsement of his vice-president and Kamala Harris’s 107-day sprint to the finish line only to come up short.

Now, Mr Biden is at it again.

Breaking his repeated promises not to do so, he has granted a “full and unconditional pardon” to his son Hunter, claiming that he was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted”. And yet, the younger Mr Biden was convicted on gun-related charges in June without any suggestion that it was an unfair prosecution. And in September, he pleaded guilty to tax evasion (and was due to be sentenced mid-December). Neither of these cases sound like an unfair prosecution.

President Biden may be on to something when he suggests that Hunter has been disproportionately targeted because he is his son. But there’s nothing to suggest unfair prosecution. Either you believe in rule of law or not. Mr Biden seems to be losing faith in the US as a nation of laws, which is a matter of despair for other Americans.

As president, both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump pardoned family members before leaving office, but for Mr Biden to do so now simply gives ammunition to the war on the Justice Department that has been ominiously promised by Mr Trump and his loyal henchmen (such as FBI director-appointee Kash Patel).

Many Americans — as well as everyone else who wants to be inspired by that country — have few expectations of Mr Trump’s second term with respect to rule of law or respect for norms. We fear that as before, Mr Trump will pay no heed to conventions such as the appearance and practice of ethical issues. For example: Let’s not name members of our own family to be US ambassador to France or Advisor on the Middle East. These will be the fathers-in-law of both Trump daughters Ivanka and Tiffany!

That’s coming down the pike. But right now, it is Mr Biden’s behaviour that’s causing despair.

Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com