Watching Democrats and press figures contort themselves into pretzels to either shamelessly justify or self-servingly distance themselves from Joe Biden giving his son, convicted felon Hunter Biden, a “full and unconditional” pardon in the last weeks of his presidency has been something else.
You’ve got the ones like Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) who tweeted “I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
There have also been Democrat media apologists like NBC News’ Chuck Todd, who probably needed to be assisted to a fainting couch Monday after his rant about Biden’s actions, where he feigned shock that the president would do such a thing after promising not to.
READ MORE: A Visibly Shaken Chuck Todd Turns on Joe and Jill Biden in Must-Watch Moment
However, as is often the case, the real reasons behind the left’s hysterical reactions eventually reveal themselves. This is where we find ourselves just three days out from The Pardon, where we’re learning that there is much Democrat infighting, with the crux of the concern being not that Biden went back on his word but because it has given President-Election Trump the moral high ground.
From Axios, where them carrying the water for Democrats on “respect for the truth and the rule of law” in the early part of the story should also be noted:
Why it matters: For years, Democrats have responded to Donald Trump’s brazen lying, shattering of norms and alleged corruption by emphasizing their own respect for the truth, institutions and the rule of law.
- By pardoning Hunter on gun and tax convictions — or any other crimes he “may have committed” between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024 — some Democrats believe Biden has sacrificed a moral high ground that’s been foundational to the party’s identity in the Trump era.
Others, they point out, have argued that it’s time to take off the gloves:
Some Democrats have grown sick of their party’s pearl-clutching in the wake of the election, seeing it as symptomatic of a broader failure to fight Trump’s fire with fire.
- “It’s time to stop playing nice. We need to stretch the limits of what’s possible and be as ruthless as Republicans when it comes to using every tool at our disposal,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote last week.
- The focus on upholding norms has been especially frustrating to members of the populist left, who say Democrats’ cultural elitism cost them enormously with working-class voters.
I laughed so hard as I read the article that my sides started to hurt.
First, on what planet do Democrats have any claim to even the tiniest sliver of moral high ground?
Also, I’d love for Mike Nellis to share what Democrats have done that has been “nice,” particularly over the last decade or so.
Because from my view here in the cheap seats, the Clinton campaign funding the Russia/Trump collusion hoax to try and disqualify Trump in 2016, the four years Democrats tried to impeach Trump on trumped up charges while he was president to hobble his administration and agenda, and then four more years of federally-directed lawfare against a potential opponent of the sitting Democrat President of the United States sure doesn’t sound too “nice” to me.
Perhaps I’m missing something. But I think not.
Democrats and their media allies have never played nice. They do not have the moral high ground. These are the exact reasons why Trump plays hardball and it is the primary reason why he has endeared himself to a good chunk of the Republican base.
If Democrats think the answer to Trump playing hardball is to take it up another notch, they are going to be sorely disappointed at how spectacularly they will fail, something they should have learned on Election Day but sadly haven’t.
