Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter marks a new low for the Democrats. As Adrian Vermeule has noted, dredging up the President’s criticism of the Supreme Court ruling on Donald Trump – “no one is above the law” misses the mark; this is not a matter of legal technicality but cartoonish nepotism that lays bare the rank hypocrisy of his party.
For months leading up to the 2020 election Democrats thundered from the pulpit about Trump’s venal, self-serving nature, how he was a liar unfit to serve as President, and how he needed to be replaced to protect American democracy.
In order to achieve this end, they proceeded to lie about Hunter Biden’s laptop, lie about Russian collusion with Trump, and repeatedly stated their doubts about any vaccine announced before polling day in 2020. How lucky for them, then, that the announcement of Pfizer’s success was delayed due to a change in trial protocol after pressure was poured on the company by public health officials, with the new data available just after the election.
Once in office, the Democrats set about making sure Trump wouldn’t win again. A series of politically motivated prosecutions were rolled out as the party rediscovered the zeal for upholding the law that so curiously left it during the Black Lives Matter riots.