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Bob, Though just a guess, I imagine Biden’s pledge not to pardon Hunter neither accounted for a Trump win nor the likes of a Bondi or Patel appointment to DOJ and the FBI respectively.

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Barbara Jo, I can't imagine that one has anything to do with the other either. I'm not suggesting that President Biden shouldn't have pardoned Hunter, I just wish he'd handled it better from the start. But if wishes were horses, we'd all be up to our necks in horse$#!+.

It's really kinda pointless to spend more time on this. What's done is done, and I don't think there's much that can be done to control the damage. The fact of the matter is that trump will use it as an excuse to pardon anyone who pledges fealty to him, and as a retort for criticism of the rogues' gallery he pardoned on his way out the door. He'll probably also use it as a shield for defending the likes of Charles Kushner, the convicted, pardoned, felonious father of his opportunistically corrupt son-in-law.

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I think Biden's decision to pardon had everything to do with the retribution agenda Trump has in mind for his DOJ. Yes, he could have said "I have no intention..." but you know the media would have spent two weeks (after every time he or the press secretary said it) parsing whether he was leaving himself room to change his mind. Circumstances changed drastically from months ago when he made that statement. He was running for a second term, and he felt confident he would win. And under those circumstances he was not going to interfere in the justice system process, even though justice had gone over the ledge. He likely would not have asked for a pardon if Harris had won. But Trump threatening the very foundation of justice with Matt Gaetz or Pam Bondi, and then trying to unleash Kash Patel, who spent four years literally threatening to dismember the FBI or CIA on his way to dismembering Hunter--that it is time to reconsider.

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Bob, You’re right. The pundits already are equivocating between Biden who pardoned his son to protect him from GOP retribution and Trump who pardoned political allies whose actions embodied some of the worst abuses of power.

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